Gate-Broken Solitudes
by Tzapporah
Summary: Jack has had one direct and one indirect encounter with the SGC, but things get really complicated when he lets his curiosity take over. Three-part short story. Only marginal appearances from SG-1 primary characters. Jack-centered.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Ok, this is the start of my second story. This is another one that nigged at my brain a bit. I couldn't help but wonder how certain events in Stargate SG-1 would've affected the Guardians, especially Jack since he's a nature spirit. Yes, this will primarily be about Jack. It will be in three parts. This first part takes place during the episode "Solitudes" which'll serve as a good curiosity-pique for Jack about the SGC. **

**I'll explain the other two parts as they come up. I decided to start with a short "story hook" chapter for this one. Hope you guys enjoy.**

**Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own neither Guardians nor Stargate. If I owned the latter, college would've been a very different experience for me.**

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**Part 1**

** Chapter 1: Interrupted Solitude**

Jack's trips to Antarctica had become much less frequent in the twenty years since he'd become a Guardian, but it was still his go-to place when he needed some peace and quiet. There was no doubt that life had gotten less lonely and easier in many ways for the Spirit of Winter since his induction, but he was still in what Sandy had called an "adjustment period." Or, at least that's what Jack thought the silent little man was trying to say, either way it seemed an apt description. Even twenty years of companionship wasn't long enough to overcome three hundred of being alone.

It was the equinox, when the two hemispheres of the globe were in perfect balance, but that meant that the places were few where the Winter Spirit could truly be comfortable. Nowhere was truly in Summer, which meant that nowhere was truly in Winter. The closest he was able to get was at the poles. In years gone past, he would either have toughed it out in Burgess, or he would've gone and slept off the uncomfortable heat of the transition days in Antarctica. In the last few decades, he'd spend the days at Santoff Clausen, where he could be both comfortable and distracted.

This time, however, his lone wolf tendencies reared their ugly head. He just wasn't in the mood to be around the other Guardians right now. He would've sworn up and down that there was no particular reason for his mood that day, but the other Guardians would've instantly recognized it as his "Jack lost another believer he was close to" depression. He did _not_ want to deal with their good-natured, but ultimately aggravating attempts to comfort him. He just wanted to be alone.

He flew to his customary spot, almost indistinguishable from the rest of the landscape, and plopped down. He idly began to contemplate starting a small blizzard, so conveniently commonplace on the barren continent, when he heard a faint voice that said something that caught him completely by surprise. "Jack!"

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**Like I said, a short one. Part 1, overall, will be shorter than the other two parts, but I promise not this short =P. Part 2 is actually almost completely written and over 2000 words. Part 3 is still just a set of story notes and ideas. **

**Hope you guys like it! **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Haha! This ended up _much_ longer than the first chapter. The first couple paragraphs were a little difficult to get going, but the rest just flowed. This chapter marks the end of Part 1 of this story (see, I said it'd be short overall). I'll be posting the first chapter of Part 2 soon, since I wrote it before I wrote this.**

**Anyway, let's not waste any more time and space before the story.**

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**Part 1**

**Chapter 2: Solitary Savior**

_Wha? Where did that come from?_ Then he heard the voice again, "Stay with me!"

Surliness warred with curiosity and was thoroughly and summarily thrashed. The voice was now almost constant, almost stream-of-consciousness. Most of the words were unintelligible to him, but some words and phrases made it through. The distressed tones punctuated by things like "broken", "hold on" and probably the most wince-worthy for him, "frostbite," led him to a jagged crevasse in the ice. By this time the voice had died down to a murmur that had taken on the steady cadence of a mantra.

As he slowly made his way down the extremely narrow and jagged cleft, the words of the mantra became intelligible, but still didn't make any sense to him. "Just fix the DHD. Just dial the SGC and get back to Earth. I can do this." _What makes her think that she's not on Earth? What the hell is a DHD? She doesn't _sound_ delirious, just desperate. What is going on down there?_

Jack knew that he was a relatively young spirit, but he doubted that _any_ of the Guardians would've believed what he saw upon entering the ice cavern the voice was coming from. A huge metal ring dominated one side of the chamber. The ring was covered in strange symbols and adorned with a half-dozen glowing triangles. A grunt interrupting the mantra tore his gaze from the giant ring to the block of ice in the middle of the room. About a third of the ice had been chipped away to reveal a chest-high console-like device with a glowing red hemisphere in the center. Underneath, a blonde head in a military-style uniform was industriously fiddling with what looked like multicolored crystals. "GOD, WHY WON'T YOU WORK!" she yelled in frustration.

Jack saw the figure behind her move a half second before her radio crackled to life. "Carter…Carter…"

Her reaction was immediate. "Colonel!" she yelled, positively jumping off of the ice to the prone figure. "Sir?"

"I'm usually the first one up." said the weak male voice of the prone figure.

She choked on a half-sob. "You're bleeding internally." _That_ was definitely not good. "I don't know how badly. Your broken leg may already be frostbitten." That explained part of what Jack had heard on his way here. "I can't tell. I've been trying to warm it up with the last of our cooking sterno, but that's about had it."

The man paused a bit before he replied. "…What's the bad news? Help me up."

Her voice took on a firmer tone. "No, Sir, you need to heal. That's an order."

"I give the orders around here." The man said in a faintly indignant tone.

She gave a small laugh and said, "Not Doctor's orders." She took a pan of water clearly melted from snow off of a small camp-cooker next to her and held it up to the man's lips. "I want you to drink as much of this as you can. Once the sterno dies, we won't be able to thaw any more. I should have gotten you out of here by now, I'm sorry."

"You will, you will." Said the man reassuringly.

Her voice took on a slightly hysterical tone. "I've been working on the control panel for the last twelve hours! It just…I don't know why it won't work. It should _work_! I…I'm missing something."

"—Captain," the man cut her off.

"Sir?"

"It's time to go to plan B."

"What would plan B be?" she replied warily.

"You take the rest of the supplies and climb out of here." She began to shake her head. "Take your chances up on the planet, head towards daylight."

"If I can't get that Stargate to work, we will BOTH go." She firmly contradicted.

Rather than expend the energy in arguing with the determined woman he merely said, "Right…I'll race you. Alright Captain, make it work."

"Yes Sir."

A companionable silence fell between the two after that. The woman went back to work on the console-thing, and the man drifted in and out of consciousness. There was little Jack could do here, especially since it was clear that neither of these two could see him. He did, however, check the man's leg and was glad to see that he did _not_ yet have frostbite, no doubt due to the woman's desperate ministrations.

_Hmm…if they can't do whatever they're trying to do with that big ring thing, she's going to try to climb out of here. That hole I came down is _not_ climber-friendly and _that_ is something I can change._ With a newfound purpose, Jack went back to the narrow path he'd descended and went to work.

* * *

Jack was proud of what he'd managed to do. The jagged, narrow crevasse that would've ripped a normal-sized person to shreds was now a gentle tube with convenient handholds for climbing. He'd even gone so far as to use his power to carve out a set of arrows pointing to the entrance of the newly-constructed pathway. There was no way these two had made it out here without anyone knowing they were here. There was also no way Jack could figure that any rescuers would be able to find them without some sort of indicator. All in all, Jack was proud of his few hours' work and descended back down to the cavern.

The woman, Carter, was talking herself through what she was doing. "Okay, energy converger intact…Oh God – reset!" Her face positively lit up. "Reset! Why didn't I think? Colonel, I'm going to interrupt the power. I'm going to shut it all off and turn it on again!" She looked to the prone man with her news. A slight nod was all the response she received.

Turning back to the console-thing to fiddle a bit more with the crystals, she muttered, "Okay…this better work." The lights on the ring and at the center of the console went out, followed by her determinedly planting her knife in the ice next to her. "Okay, okay…" she said as she started to push buttons in front of her.

The triangles on the ring began to light up as she depressed the buttons. By the third one, the room started to shake. Jack was worried that the shaking might just bring the rest of the room down on them and rushed to frostily reinforce what he could in the chamber. As such, he only saw her press the hemisphere in the middle out of the corner of his eye.

She was looking pleadingly at the gate, panting "Work….work…" when the shaking abruptly stopped; leaving the circle and console in the exact state they'd been in when Jack had first arrived. An inarticulate cry of frustration erupted from deep within her chest.

She dejectedly made her way over to the prone man, who looked up at her and said, "I guess it didn't work."

"I'm sorry," she replied mournfully.

"Not your fault."

"I don't understand why it won't work!"

"Captain, plan B, go." He ordered.

"No, Sir…" she vehemently replied.

"—Sam, I'm dying. Follow my order…please"

"Sir…" She was barely able to stop herself from crying.

"Please." He said quietly.

Her mouth firmed. "Yes Sir!" she said as she quickly made preparations for her climb. Jack was glad to see her mild pleasure at finding the results of his few hours' labor. He decided to follow her up the tunnel and reinforce as they went.

She kept up a running dialogue over the radio with the man down in the cavern. Nothing of consequence was exchanged, but there was some annoyed bitching about someone named "Kinsey." After they were done with him, there was some good-natured complaining about the foibles of a man named "Daniel." Jack knew that she was just trying to keep the man conscious, but the conversation made him chuckle a few times. He really hoped that whatever rescue was coming for these two would come soon. He liked them.

It was slow-going, and so it was when she was only about two-thirds of the way up that she said, "Colonel, I can't see the surface yet. It looks like it just keeps going up."

"Sam…" the man's voice crackled over her radio.

"Yes Sir?" she asked with obvious trepidation.

"It was an honor serving with you."

Jack almost choked at the look of grief on her face, but the fleeting expression was replaced with determination as she said, "Yes Sir," and kept climbing.

The climb continued in silence. Jack was used to silence, but this silence's grief-filled overtone was one of the worst kinds. Just as she reached the lip of the tunnel, she broke the silence with, "Colonel, I'm almost there. I'm gonna try and bring back help, Sir. I want you to hold that thought."

She pulled herself out of the tunnel and looked around. Her face fell at the sight that greeted her. She had no way of knowing that she was less than 50 miles away from the Antarctic outpost, and Jack had no way of telling her. She closed her eyes in resignation and activated her radio. "Colonel? It's an ice planet. That's all there is as far as the eye can see. No chance."

She turned around to reenter the tunnel and yelled, "Colonel! I'm coming down!" She recklessly began to climb back down and quickly lost her footing. Jack reacted quickly and flew ahead of her to help smooth out the bumps of the handholds he'd created before. At least he could save her from some injury.

When she reached the bottom, she crawled over to nestle next to the prone man. "Colonel…Colonel…"

"Sara…"

She barely hesitated at the misnomer, "I'm here, Jack."

That was the first time since when he'd first heard her that she'd said that name. _So this guy has the same name as me, huh? Well that explains that._

"Cold, so cold…" the man stammered out.

"I know. It's alright. You can sleep now." She said soothingly, "It was an honor serving with you too, Colonel."

Jack watched the pair for another few minutes. "I haven't even known you for a day, but I feel honored, too." He floated away and out of the cavern. He had a lot to think about.

* * *

Jack wasn't sure how much time had passed, but it wasn't long before he heard the thump-thump-thump of a helicopter. His head shot up. _Please tell me they're here for Sam and Jack down there._ He rapidly flew in the direction of the sound.

He was ecstatic to see a rescue helicopter making a beeline for where the two were buried under the ice. The only problem with that was that it was a good hundred yards from the entrance to the cavern.

"Oh god, they're not going to get to them in time. What can I do?" He looked around desperately for an answer. The arrows he'd already created were on the other side of a small rise, and unless the helicopter moved closer in that direction, they were going to completely miss it.

A sudden gust of wind blasted against the back of his head. He'd been friends with the wind long enough to get the message. "Of course! C'mon wind, we're going to help them! Blow that helicopter far enough to see the marker!"

The wind responded with a perfectly calibrated gust. The helicopter pilot made his adjustments to make up for the sudden change and Jack heard one of the passengers yell. "Look, down there! There's a cave entrance!"

The chopper set down twenty feet from the tunnel entrance and it took less than a minute for one of the rescue workers to don a safety harness, tie it to the vehicle, and dive down the hole.

Jack followed him down to see him rapidly and expertly ministering to the two unconscious figures. After he was finished with his first-aid and assessment, he spoke into his own radio. "They're both alive. The Colonel has some injuries, but they'll both make it."

Relief flooded through Jack at those words. They were going to be alright. He hadn't watched them die. They were going to keep on living their lives at least partly due to him.

He stuck around long enough to see them accompanied by friendly faces onto the helicopter and airlifted out.

He'd come down here to be alone and sulk, and he'd ended up saving the lives of two people. All in all, he'd count this as a very good day. He'd leave the mystery of the giant ring and just _how_ those two had gotten there for another day. Today he'd just be content.

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**End of Part 1!**

**Thanks to those few of you that already favorited/followed/reviewed on my short intro-chapter. Hopefully this'll help bring in a few more.**

**A large amount of the dialogue in this between Sam and Jack are directly from the GateWorld transcript of the episode "Solitudes" I tried to fill in a little extra around for the parts of the episode that took place back at the SGC, hope it worked out well.**

**Yes...yes...Jack got Gibbs-slapped by the wind. The mental image amused me greatly.**

**I decided to try and use Jack to tie up a few loose ends from the episode that had bothered me. Is it just me, or was that tunnel Sam climbed out suspiciously just-smooth-enough? If the Gate shaking was strong enough to be picked up on a seismometer several miles away, why wasn't the chamber structurally damaged? Yup...I came up with my own answers for that.**

**Part 2 will deal with an episode about a year later, and I can tell you right now that it will _not_ be a fun time for Jack.**

**Until then, Tzapporah signing off!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: And now we have the beginning of the second part, which'll be coming in a few more chapters than the first. Let's see how quickly you can figure out what Stargate episode this has to do with. No, there will be no SG-1 personnel in this part of the story. This takes place approximately one year after Part 1.**

**Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own none of these things.**

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**Part 2**

**Chapter 3: An Emergency Call**

North was tinkering in his workshop when something bumped into the side of his head. He looked up in surprise to see a small biplane made of dreamsand. Well, where there was dreamsand, there was Sandy. North looked around for his diminutive friend, but could not find him. He turned to the small plane and said, "Sandy? What is wrong? Why you not come yourself?"

As if in answer, the little biplane reformed into a large exclamation point with a starburst as its point.

"Trouble? What trouble?"

The exclamation point only moved closer to his face, and he realized that what he had initially thought was a starburst was really a snowflake.

"Jack? Jack is in trouble? Where?" The last he said while hustling out to the globe room.

The dreamsand followed him and settled itself directly over Phoenix, Arizona on the giant globe.

North nodded and hit the button to trigger the Aurora Borealis, as a beautiful beacon used as an emergency call to all of the Guardians. It was the middle of summer and Jack did not do well in the heat. If he was in Arizona, then something was very wrong. He ordered the Yetis to get the sleigh ready as he quickly gathered the necessities for the trip.

Bunny was the first to arrive, "What's up, North?"

"Jack is in trouble," said the Russian.

"What's Frostbite gotten himself into, now?" said Bunny, his sour tone doing a poor job of concealing his concern for the young spirit.

"Don't know, but Sandy is worried, and he's in Arizona…in the summer." Bunny winced at that; he'd seen what had happened to Jack when Pitch had managed to get him temporarily stuck in the desert.

"So what're we waitin' for, mate?"

"Oh! I'm here! I'm here! I came as fast as I could! What's happening?" Tooth said in a rush as she fluttered in through the window.

"Sandy sent for us. It's Frostbite." Said Bunny before North even had a chance to respond.

Tooth's hands flew to her mouth, "Oh! What's wrong with him?"

"Do not know. Only know he is in desert and is summer." Responded the Russian while he headed out the door towards his sleigh. Bunny and Tooth wasted no time in following.

Luckily enough for Bunny, the sleigh had gotten a few overhauls in the past two decades, not the least of which was the addition of a safety harness for the pooka. The ride would still be gut-wrenching and nausea-inducing, but at least he didn't have to focus on staying _in_ the vehicle as well.

North waited just long enough for Bunny to fasten himself in before throwing the snow globe he'd attuned to Phoenix and launching the reindeer through the portal.

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**This is another short one. I'm still deciding how I want to chop up the rest of what I've got for this, and I'm still finishing off this section while I'm at it. I'll be updating semi-regularly as long as I have material to update with. Hope you guys like it.**

**In response to the arrows comment in the reviews from the last chapter. I'm thinking they assumed that Sam had done it or something. As little sense as it made for the tunnel to be perfectly smooth enough for climbing/sliding, it made even less sense that its entrance would be easy to find for an overflying rescue helicopter. GPS is one thing, random ice-tunnels in Antarctica are another.**

**Review! Let's see if you can guess in which episode this takes place.**

**Tzapporah signing off!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Was thinking and felt that I needed something from Jack's point of view. It'll help make the rest make a lot more sense. So, while I was supposed to be getting other stuff done, I ended up writing this. Yeah...I really need to learn to focus. **

**Lil' Line O' Litguous Lard: I own none of these things. College would've been infinitely different if I did own Stargate...**

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**Part 2**

**Chapter 4: A Marionette's Nightmare**

Jack was minding his own business in Chile, giving Santiago a few inches of fresh powder snow, when everything went fuzzy. Sound became muted as if he'd shoved a pillow over his head or stuffed cotton in his ears. His body felt deadened and dull, as if every inch of him had fallen asleep. In fact, the only sense still intact was his vision. He watched with crystal clarity as his arms extended slightly in front of him and shot two blasts of frost. He then watched as the earth rotated beneath him and Santiago receded into the distance as his body, which was no longer under his control, flew rapidly north.

Jack was imprisoned inside his own head. He was in a Plexiglas jail cell where he could see everything, but could do nothing. He spent the entire flight north trying to figure out what was going on. This was like nothing he'd ever experienced before, and the panic was starting to creep in around the edges. He started to desperately search for some kind of crack in the walls of his prison; something he could use to regain control. He almost didn't notice when his body stopped over a city hazed over in a blistering heat. _It's summer, _he thought, on the edge of hysteria; _I can't come here in the summer! I'll boil—._

His thought was cut short by his body once again extending his staff. Clouds began to gather and swirl around him. In less than five minutes, the previously partly-cloudy sky had become packed with massive storm clouds. This time his puppeteer meant business. There were no little experimental gusts this time, oh no. This time they were using him to summon a storm that would make the oft-mentioned blizzard of '68 look like a brief flurry.

_"What are you doing!"_ he screamed from inside his prison, _"It's summer! There's no way they're prepared for something like that! People are going to die! KIDS are going to die!"_ The young Guardian continued to rail and beat at his mental cage for the better part of an hour. He'd almost given up when a familiar golden figure entered his field of vision. "_Sandy!"_

It was, indeed, the diminutive Guardian of Dreams. Jack figured he'd come to investigate the source of the golf ball-sized hailstones that were now battering the city below. He floated towards Jack with a look of concern and a golden question mark above his head. _"Sandy! Help me! I'm trapped!"_

The question mark was replaced with an exclamation point as Sandy closed the distance. Jack didn't know exactly what Sandy was seeing, but at least it was clear that something was wrong. Sandy's hand waved in front of Jack's eyes. _"Yes! Sandy, I'm in here!"_ Unfortunately, the rotund figure couldn't hear him. The little man's worried face took up all of Jack's field of vision for a moment, searching Jack's eyes. Jack's heart fell when Sandy backed away, clearly frightened by what he'd seen. _What did he see? Or worse…what _didn't _he see?_ Jack's vision became a wash of gold as Sandy blasted dreamsand into his face. _That might work!_ Jack's optimism was dashed less than a later, however. His marionette body hadn't responded one bit, and Jack saw and felt absolutely zero effects inside of his prison. Whatever this was, it was immune to dreamsand.

Sandy was as disheartened as he; Jack watched as he formed a small biplane out of his dreamsand and sent it northward. He was calling in the cavalry.

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**Another semi-short glimpse. I plan for the next chapter to actually switch between Jack's and other Guardians' viewpoints. No one's tried to guess the episode yet, I look forward to see the guesses. C'mon guys, gimme something else to giggle about!**

**BTW, pure italics are him just thinking to himself. The quoted italics are him trying to say something out loud, but being unable to due to the whole trapped-in-his-own-head thing.**

**Read and Review!**

**Tzapporah signing off!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner! Well, technically we have three. All three people that guessed seriously correctly figured out that this is during Touchstone! It was actually the first episode I thought of when I was thinking of ways that events at the SGC could've had an effect on the Guardians. **

**This chapter's going to jump between Jack's and the other Guardians' POV's.**

**Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own none of these. God I wish I did.**

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**Part 2**

**Chapter 5: Reprieve **

The Guardians instantly knew why Sandy had sent for them when they found the sleigh being violently battered in the middle of a massive hailstorm as soon as they emerged from North's Portal.

"Bloody hell! What could've got up Frostbite's nose this badly?"

North could only shake his head in confusion while Tooth's eyes widened with sympathetic worry for the young spirit. "I do not know, but we need to find him."

"Oh yeah, mate, that's just brilliant. How are we supposed to do that?" came the sarcastic reply.

Bunny's rhetorical question was answered when a vine of dreamsand came into view, serving as a clear course to follow for the buffeted sleigh and its passengers. The path was rough, but they did eventually reach their destination.

They found Jack simply hovering at the eye of the storm with his back to them. He was simply floating, body completely relaxed, hands out and the one holding his staff slightly extended. Not one thing about his body language denoted that anything was wrong, but _something_ was off about it. Sandy came into view as they rounded the Winter Spirit; directly in front of Jack with terrified and worried expression on his face. Half a second later, the rest of the Guardians could see why.

They had been prepared for Jack to be depressed. They had been prepared for him to be sad. They had been prepared for him to be injured. They had even been prepared for him to be in a towering rage. What they hadn't been prepared for was…nothing. Jack's face was completely blank; his usually mobile face as expressionless as a Japanese _No_ mask. His eyes were open and completely empty as well. His already pale complexion only added to the macabre impression of a hanging corpse.

A golden dusting of dreamsand on the boy's face compounded the disturbing nature of the image. Dreamsand, probably one of the most powerful substances in the world, had had absolutely zero effect. Jack being unaffected by the dreamsand meant that he was in the thrall of something extremely powerful, and, judging by the massive storm around them, not friendly.

* * *

Jack felt a trickle of relief as saw the other Guardians arrive around the periphery of his field of vision. Maybe the others would have something up their sleeves.

"Frostbite!" Bunny's voice was muted as it was filtered through Jack's dulled senses. "What d'ya think you're doin'?"

_"It's not like I'm doing this on _purpose_!"_ Jack railed. How could Bunny possibly think that he was like that? Being sore about that bloody blizzard was one thing, but that was just cruel! He threw all of his willpower and indignation against the walls of his prison. He had to tell them that it wasn't really him. He had to _tell_ them!

He was caught completely unawares when he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He gave a shuddering gasp in surprise, doubled over and began to gulp in massive lungfuls of air. It took a few seconds for Jack's tired and frightened mind to realize that this was happening in the real world and he was gasping the air into his own body.

The storm below was quickly blowing itself out and he could hear Tooth calling his name, but when he looked up, it was into the eyes of Sandy. He desperately put his hands on the shoulders of the small Guardian. He _had_ to explain. _Had_ to make him understand.

* * *

Jack's abrupt gasp and doubling over caught everyone by surprise. After a few shuddering breaths, he raised his head. His eyes weren't blank now; they were wide, filled with terror and desperation. He reached out to clutch the small man's shoulders and was barely coherent as he pleadingly stammered out, "I…I…couldn't stop. I could…I could see…I could see myself doing it…but I just couldn't…I couldn't stop...oh god." His head fell and his arms crossed to clutch his own chest. He seemed to shrink in on himself as he curled around his staff in a fetal position. "…had no control…could only watch…had to watch…" His voice died down to a mumble and his eyes were now squeezed tightly closed.

Tooth shot forward past the stunned Sandy to snatch the tight ball he'd become out of the air. "Oh Jack…it's not your fault!" She might couldn't be sure of exactly what was going on, but she had absolutely no doubts on that fact. "Everything'll be OK…it's not your fault." She murmured soothingly to him as she carried him back to the sleigh.

* * *

Jack continued to clutch at his body, still horrified by whatever that _thing_ had made him do. It had scared him more than anything in his life; he doubted even Pitch could come up with something that cruel. It had come and gone with absolutely no warning, and Jack was scared to death it might happen again. He had an irrational idea that if he held onto himself tightly enough, whatever it was wouldn't be able to snatch it away from him again.

He was dimly aware of Tooth's arms around him, but he hungrily drank in her words. Her voice was a balm to his psyche, which was why it was all the more frightening when he felt the prison walls slam down around him yet again.

* * *

Tooth felt a flood of relief when she felt the body of the traumatized boy begin to relax and unfold halfway back to the sleigh. Her relief was short-lived, however, when he turned and she saw that his face had returned to its blank state. "Jack?" she tentatively asked, not really expecting a response. He did not even acknowledge her existence as he rotated and suddenly shot off westward.

Tooth exchanged a quick, frightened, look with the other Guardians. She and Sandy darted into the sleigh and North, for his part, wasted no time in setting his sleigh off after the wayward Winter Spirit.

* * *

**Made some good progress on this chapter. I'd actually already done all of the Guardians' POV bit a few days ago, chose to intersperse some of Jack's stuff in with it. I think it worked out pretty well.**

**The guessing award goes to Sora Moto, who was very quickly followed by Evenmoor. Queen Haydee River...your first half gave me a headache, but I understand you were just messing around. Yeah...I have zero interest in putting a Goa'uld into any of the spirits, much less a Guardian. I doubt I'll even have a Goa'uld in this entire story, in fact.**

**Esmeraude11 was the 4th person to correctly guess. I will address your question here, too. Yes, I would imagine that some other elemental spirits would be affected, but none are ever specifically named in the Guardians. I will bring at least one of them in, but not until later. I still have to decide which one from which mythos to use. It will be a very minor appearance.**

**On another note: Holy crap! This has gotten a lot more attention than I expected it to! I'm a little excited.**

**Read and Review!**

**Tzapporah signing off!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Aaand a new chapter! Fair warning, the updates are going to be falling off a good deal in the upcoming weeks, since things are gonna be a bit crazy for me. So if you don't see me for a week or two, don't despair! I will just not have had time to write anything. With the general pace of the fic, I'm expecting fifteen chapters, tops. Yeah...watch me screw that one up... I originally planned for the second part of this chapter to be the first part of the next, but decided this worked better as a roll-together.**

**Anyway, On with the show!**

**Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own neither franchise and nothing contained within.**

* * *

**Part 2**

**Chapter 6: Trapped and Hiding**

During the westward trip, Sandy filled the other Guardians in on what he'd seen and been able to figure out before they had arrived. The most difficult part for him to articulate was his belief that Jack was trapped inside of his own mind. It was only through the extra understanding of the psyche he had as the Guardian of Dreams that he was remotely able to understand.

"So you saw the storm, went to investigate, and found him like that?" asked Tooth, making sure she was interpreting Sandy's pictograms correctly.

The little man nodded and pondered how he could explain what he'd figured out.

"But what could make Frostbite do that? His face was completely blank, like he wadn't even there." Mused Bunny, "And then after, 'e was saying something about having to watch. What the bloody 'ell was 'e talkin' about?"

Aha! The furball had given Sandy exactly the opening he needed. Above his head, a miniature Jack formed out of dreamsand. When he was sure he had their attention, a cage slammed down around the small figure, which briefly flew around in a panic before beginning to struggle at the bars, silently screaming.

"Whad'ya mean he's trapped? He was right there in front of us." Came Bunny's confused reply.

Sandy shook his head in frustration, and then formed a second image of Jack, this time just his head, but the same size as the trapped miniature. He then put the cage _inside_ the larger image.

The other Guardians blinked owlishly at him for a moment before Tooth burst out, "You mean he's trapped inside his own head?"

Sandy nodded.

"And he's scared and trying to get out?"

Sandy nodded again. She was grasping this more quickly than he'd expected.

"We have to find him and help him! He's already so sensitive about what his snow does sometimes, and there's no way there weren't any injuries from that hailstorm he made back there. Oh!" Her hands flew to her mouth in realization, "He said he had to watch it all. Oh, it must be tearing him up inside!"

"We must find him, quick as possible." rumbled North from the front of the sleigh. The other three nodded grimly and looked ahead, each trying to figure out some way they could possibly aid their young friend.

It took a few hours for the Guardians to catch up to and locate their youngest member. They found him hovering over Palm Springs, California in the exact same position as they'd found him in Phoenix, lording overtop of a storm cloud unleashing a blizzard on the unfortunate city below. Approaching from above, they brought the sleigh cautiously in behind of the Winter Spirit.

North cautiously reached over with one of his large hands to grasp the Winter Spirit's soldier. Unsurprisingly, there was no response from the boy. After a few seconds, the other Guardians noticed his hand start to quiver and the muscles on his arm tense with strain. The big man was actually trying to physically turn the boy around! And he was failing! The giant Russian strained against the immovable object of the spindly teenager for several minutes before letting go and shaking his arm out. "I pull any harder, will probably start breaking bones. As is, he will have bad bruise when is over."

While North was executing his idea, Sandy had repositioned himself to once again look into the boy's seemingly-empty gaze. His worried frown deepened at what he saw. He used a small dreamsand whip to attract the attention of the other Guardians.

"What is it, Sandy?"

The golden man cast an uncertain glance at the still-immobile boy before reforming the Jack-in-a-cage image he'd used earlier. This time, however, the Jack wasn't beating on the bars or screaming. This time, the miniature Jack was hugging his legs to his chest in a fetal position in a corner of the cave, gently rocking back and forth.

"'E's not even fighting anymore?" asked Bunnymund incredulously, "I've never seen Frostbite give up like that b'fore."

"Oh! He must be in incredible pain!" lamented Tooth.

"I was gonna try knocking 'im out," suggested Bunnymund, spinning his boomerang and ignoring Tooth's angry frown, "but I don't think it'll do any good with Frostbite already effectively lights-out."

"We can try blocking him the next time he flies off. We know to be on the lookout for it this time." Suggested Tooth.

North exchanged glances with Bunny and Sandy. "Is best option right now. Tooth, you would be only one fast enough; the rest of us will try to help hold from behind."

Tooth nodded. The only thing left to do now was wait.

It was a half an hour before Jack cut off the flow of snow from his staff. There was no gasp this time, however. His head and arms just drooped limply for a second, and then came right back up in blank-face mode again.

Tooth was poised to intercept the young Guardian as soon as he moved. This time he turned back towards the East. Before he could fly off, Tooth positioned herself in front of him and braced her hands against his shoulders in an attempt to keep him in place. Meanwhile, Sandy wrapped dreamsand tendrils around his middle and North and Bunnymund each took an arm. Their efforts turned out to be for naught, however, as he simply moved forward with no acknowledgement that his movement was even impeded. They couldn't even able to slow him down, and he was accelerating rapidly. The three Guardians behind found they could not maintain their grasps on the boy, and Tooth found herself with a choice. She could either let go of him and get into the sleigh with North to follow like before, or she could hold onto Jack wherever he was heading and have more time to something before the others arrived.

It was an easy decision, she folded her wings and shifted her grip on Jack and allowed him to carry them wherever they were going.

* * *

Even at the breakneck speeds they'd been travelling, it still took over an hour before he came to an abrupt halt somewhere over New Mexico. Tooth was dislodged by the change in momentum and tumbled a little bit in surprise before she recovered and was hovering under her own power. She then got to be the first Guardian to see Jack start one of his freak storms.

His head was cocked to the side for a few minutes, as if he were listening to instructions. His body then went into the pose that the other Guardians had found him in at the two previous locations and hailstones started spewing out of the end of his staff.

The next half hour consisted of Tooth trying everything she could to get Jack to snap out of it. She tugged his arms. She tried to pry his staff out of his hand. She even slapped him across his face. Everything she tried proved fruitless. In the end, she just decided to give what little comfort she could and held him in a tight hug from behind while she waited for the others.

As it turned out, she didn't have to wait for them. Less than fifteen minutes later, Jack went limp like he had in California. He was like a marionette with its strings cut; his staff slipped out of his hand and it was only Tooth's quick reflexes that allowed her to catch it with her feet. Tooth gently lowered him onto the top of the nearest building. His breathing was even but ragged, like that of someone sleeping with respiratory infection. His eyes were closed and his brows slightly drawn together, as if troubled by something. His limbs, now free of gravity's pull, began to slowly fold inward; his knees lifting towards his chest in an echo of the fetal position Sandy had shown them of the inner-Jack in his prison. His movements were at the same time agonizingly slow and frighteningly fast. In five minutes, which felt like an hour to Tooth, he had completely shrunk in on himself, knees hugged to his gently rising chest.

"Oh, Jack…" she said, completely at a loss of how to help the young spirit. She didn't know what worried her more: Jack being in such a fragile state or that he'd break out of it only to return to the blank thrall he'd been in before. All she could do was stay with him and stroke his hair as she made soothing noises. She held the small block of dreamsand that Sandy had given her as a beacon tightly to her chest and awaited the arrival of the other Guardians.

* * *

**Aand, there's chapter 6. I really am amazed at the amount of attention this fic's gotten. The viewership is climbing hugely every day. Next chapter will be the last of Part 2, expect my first OC to show up, albeit briefly.**

**In answer to your question, Maiar, No. What is snatching Jack is no more or less than the Touchstone itself exerting its influence. No Goa'uld, Ori or Ancient involvement at all. I guess you could cast some blame on the Furlings, though, since they're the ones that _created_ the bloody thing. **

**As I mentioned above, expect update speed to trail off a bit in coming weeks. Not only do I not have as much already written, but I also have a lot of other hectic stuff to get done in that time. Hope you guys enjoy the update!**

**Read and Review!**

**Tzapporah signing off!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Ok... so I lied...I thought this would be the last chapter of Part 2, and it was attempting to finish the rest of it that caused it to be delayed so much. Not only am I not done with it yet, but this felt like a really good break point. Also, I figured that you guys'd appreciate an update sooner more than a long finale later. Anyway. There will _definitely_ only be one more chapter for Part 2 after this. Then I get to start working on Part 3.**

**Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own neither universe. I wish I did. There is an O.C. in this chapter, though.**

* * *

**Part 2**

**Chapter 7: Explanations and Recriminations**

It was another half hour before the other Guardians arrived in North's sleigh; there had been absolutely no change in Jack.

"How long has he been like this?" asked North.

"A half an hour," Tooth replied mournfully, "I've been talking to him, but it's like he's trying to shut out the world."

"We need to get him back to Pole. If nothing else, Yetis can keep him in building." North said, pulling out his snow globe.

Tooth nodded as she carried the surprisingly-light Winter Child to the sleigh, attentive for any indication that Jack might shoot off on his own again. The young spirit, however, did not move or react the entire way to the bed in the infirmary of Santoff Clausen.

The four Guardians looked at the boy, still curled into his fetal ball and eyes clenched shut, lying in the bed. They weren't completely sure what to do or expect. Was he going to snap out of it? Was he going to fly off in a haze again? Was something else entirely going to happen?

North opted to plan for the worst and ordered the Yetis to gently strap Jack down to the bed. Bunny took Jack's staff and hid it in the Warrens for good measure. Sandy had inspected him and informed the other Guardians that Jack had retreated deep into his own mind and there was nothing he could currently do about it in the state Jack was in.

An entire day passed and there had been no change in the Winter Spirit. The Guardians wracked their brains for what they could possibly do. It was Bunnymund who had the final brainstorm. "'Ay, wait a minute. Didn't they 'ave torrential rains in Nevada while we were chasing Frostbite around?" he asked North.

"Aye, but what does that have to do with—Hyas!" North had clearly come to the same conclusion as the Pooka.

"Exactly. I'd bet an 'ole batch o' eggs on 'im being affected like Frostbite. 'E's also a few thousand years older than any of us. 'E might just 'ave an idea." His accent became more pronounced as his enthusiasm about the idea grew.

"To Globe Room! We find him! Sandy will watch Jack." The small Guardian nodded in acknowledgement of the last statement as the large Russian and Kangaroo-rabbit rushed out of the door of the infirmary.

* * *

Finding the ancient Rain Spirit did not prove difficult; it was monsoon season in Asia, after all. His monumentally foul mood, however, almost made them regret their decision.

"And what the hell do _you two_ want?" grumbled the surly spirit.

"Um…well…we kinda noticed a bit of a downpour in Nevada yesterday…" began Bunny.

The golden-bearded spirit visibly winced, but defensively stated. "So what? Rainstorms in the desert are always sudden and strong. Besides, since when were you two the weather police?"

Bunny pressed on, "Bloody 'ell. I'll come right out and say it. Were you in control of your actions yesterday, or was somethin' makin' ya do it?"

Hyas visibly stiffened and his eyes looked at them suspiciously, "Why do you ask?"

"Is Jack, Jack Frost. Something decided to use him as its little puppet yesterday. Blizzard and hailstorms along southern U.S.. Now he at Pole in very bad shape."

"What? It—it hit one so young? _Damn bloody furballs!_" exclaimed the rain spirit in obvious fury.

"Uh, what was that, mate?" Asked Bunnymund dangerously, suspicious of a possible slur on his extinct people.

Hyas, oblivious the pooka and running his hands through his thick hair, continued his tirade. "I _knew_ that bloody thing was going to cause misery. I _told_ them. Did the haughty little bastards listen? _NO!_ I mean, what do I know? I'm just a rain spirit; one of the very things they were trying to make that thing control. The Gods, and now the Moon make us this way for a _reason_! It took some idiot causing the entire damned _Sinai_ to flood convince them. That damned thing was supposed to be gone for good!"

Seemingly finished with his stream-of-consciousness narrative, he drew a deep and steadying breath and turned to the two stunned-looking Guardians. "I apologize for my outburst. What caused the young Frost to behave as he did is a device designed millennia ago to control the weather. The weather of our world is, as you know, controlled by animate and sentient beings. The designers did not know this, and designed their device accordingly. There were…bad reactions, to put it mildly. Eventually, another group of people removed it from our world." He held up his hand to forestall the obvious question. "No, I will not tell you how, even if I knew all of the details. That is information from an era long-past; one that should stay buried. Suffice to say, it was taken from our world."

"Then how did it hit you and Frostbite yesterday?" was Bunnymund's indignant question.

The Grecian looked a bit bemused, "I…I sensed its return the night before last, although it had been so long that I didn't recognize it immediately. I'm ashamed to say that it took me feeling its grip to realize exactly what I was sensing. Someone had it somewhere in Utah and was inexpertly fiddling with it. That's what made both the Winter Spirit and I cause such unseasonal mayhem."

North was aghast, "You say is back here? Is there way to stop or get rid of it? Jack is bad off as is, being puppet again…would be very bad. I feel it deep in my belly." He solemnly patted the paunch in question.

Hyas shook his head. "No, it disappeared again by mid-afternoon yesterday. I…went to investigate where it had been and I'm…confident it will not be back here for a very, very long time." He was clearly choosing his words carefully, not wanting to give the two Guardians more information than he felt necessary. "As for the young Guardian, what is his condition?"

"Frostbite's been curled up in a ball since yesterday. Sandy says 'e buried 'imself in 'is own 'ead." Bunny paused before continuing quietly, unsure of how to say the next words. "We…looked into what 'e'd been made to do. There were over a hundred ice- and snow-related deaths in California, alone; most were before the snow and 'ail actually started." He left the rest to the imagination of the ancient man.

"I see." Hyas's golden eyes gained a haunted, faraway look. "When you are held by the device…it is like being put inside of a transparent prison. Sound is muffled and feeling is limited, but…you can see everything completely perfectly. Absolutely everything; but can do absolutely nothing. No doubt he saw all of, and heard many of, those things his body did. He's a gentle and sensitive soul, yes?"

The two Guardians nodded in agreement, Bunny too horrified by what he was hearing to lapse into his usual snarkiness about the young Guardian.

Hyas smiled gently. "Can you really blame him for trying to cut himself off from all of that? The only advice I can give you is this: he just went through hell. Sandy may be able to help coax him back out, but this is going to haunt him for a long time. Don't push him; let him process and deal with what happened on his own terms. It will be excruciatingly-slow going for a while, but he _will_ recover; make sure he knows you know that."

The two Guardians thanked the ancient Spirit of Seasonal Rains and left in North's sleigh; both quiet and lost in their own thoughts.

* * *

While North and Bunnymund had been gone, Sandy had made some strides in making Jack more comfortable. The boy had relaxed some out of his tight ball; his facial features slowly smoothing to the peacefulness of sleep. The little man turned, manifesting a question mark above his head as he did so, to two returning Guardians.

North seemed unsure how to answer, so Bunnymund took it upon himself to share the most immediately important information. "Hyas says that the thing that got Frostbite's gone and won't be comin' back." To illustrate his point, he began to undo the fastening on the bed's straps. "'E wouldn't tell us _what_ it was, exactly or 'ow he knew, but 'e was sure."

North had managed to gather his thoughts by that point and continued, "Is as we thought, Jack saw and heard everything it made him do. He says Jack will get better, but to give him time. It will not be easy…on all of us."

Sandy nodded, knowing that there must have been more to the conversation, but satisfied that he had the important details. They could take time later to cogitate on whatever they'd gleaned. Right now it was time to focus on the recovery of their youngest member.

* * *

**Hyas turned out to be a lot more fun than I was expecting. I think I might finally have a character to add to a bank of potential O.C.'s I can use in something later. For those curious. Hyas is from Greek mythology. He is the son of Atlas and the brother of the Hyades. You might know him better as the constellation Aquarius. Everything else about him, I made up as I went. Hope you guys like him.**

**The "damned furballs" that Hyas is referring to are the Furlings, whom the background-stargatelore says created the Touchstone. In my headcanon, the Furlings were an advanced scientific race who'd outgrown such things as belief in mythical beings, especially those in charge of weather patterns. **

**Little mini-background-story to follow:**

**At the time the Touchstone was created, there were small delegations of both the Asgard and the Furlings on Earth. The Asgard's chosen mode of intervention was with the Norsemen, as you already know. The Furlings, more reclusive by nature, saw that a large portion of the planet's population lived in inhospitable areas, where they clustered around and fought over the limited resources of those areas. This is why they created the Touchstone. It was created and tested on Medrona, but found it just as problematic on Earth as the NID did. It took the causing of Noah's flood for them to give up on their efforts and return the object to a place they _knew_ it worked. **

**And that's it for the mini-exposition.**

**Effugere: When I read your review, I was a bit amazed at my own reaction. Surprisingly-addicting is a perfect description of how I feel writing it, too. You've easily topped my list of favorite reviews on any of my stories. Thanks a bunch!**

**Enjoy!**

**Tzapporah signing off!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Haha! I live! Sorry about the long wait for this chapter, but a lot of life has been happening, things like getting myself fully certified for teaching and the like. I hope the length of this chapter helps make up for it.**

* * *

**Part 2 **

**Chapter 8: Aftermath**

Jack slept for three more days, his body exhausted from the power the external force had caused him to release, his mind slowly being coaxed from its dark corner by the efforts of the Guardian of Dreams. The first day was a rough one for the Guardians; the boy had lain as still as a corpse, with only the barest movement of his chest and a slight furrowing of his brow giving any indication of life. The second day brought movement to the facial muscles, odd twitches of emotions playing tag across the pale boy's face. On the third day, his body followed suit, and he would occasionally toss, turn, and emit muted whimpers in his slumber. According to Sandy, they would not have much longer before he regained consciousness, but he could and would not speculate on Jack's mental state at that point.

Tooth was in attendance in the late morning of the fourth day when he silently opened his eyes. She was in the middle of semi-frantically pacing at the time, muttering to herself, and did not immediately notice the change. "Oh! He said it would be today! Today's almost gone! I'm going to have to get back to my teeth before long. Oh—! "The rest of her musings were cut short when her glance caught sight of those ice-blue eyes, and she let out a happy shriek. "Jack! You're back!" she cried, half-flying, half-running over to the recumbent teen to bury him in a bear hug.

Jack was stiff under her arms, making no move to reciprocate the show of affection. Tooth, not in her most observant state at the moment, took a full minute to realize this fact. She pulled back to inspect the boy's face; what she saw had an immediate and drastic sobering effect on her ebullience.

A large part of Jack's lifespan…or after-deathspan as the case may be…had been spent alone, and as such he'd had a lot of experience hiding his true emotions from both himself and casual observers. After twenty years of association, however, Tooth was no longer a casual observer; his carefully-schooled neutral expression did not fool her for a single second. Badly-concealed sadness, shame and guilt were plastered across his face, and his gaze was fixed to on a spot in the back of the room. "Oh, Jack…" she murmured, "It wasn't your fault."

His eyes shifted to the ground at their feet and slowly rose up the Fairy's body, stopping at shoulder-level, as if he couldn't bring himself to look her in the face. His mouth twitched, opening and closing a few times until it his jaw set, ready for him to speak, "…—"

They were interrupted by the sound of the other Guardians crashing through the infirmary door. "Jack!" "Frosbite!" *smile and exclamation point*

Jack's mouth snapped shut with an audible click and his gaze immediately shifted to the floor at the opposite end of the room from the newly-arrived Guardians. Tooth shot a glare at the three so sharp it stopped them in their tracks, continued words of exuberance dying on their lips.

She leaned in, "Jack…what were you about to say?" With no answer, she continued to gently press him under the observation of the silent male Guardians. The only response she received was the occasional small shake of the boy's head.

"Tooth," Bunny said, gently, deciding that it was time someone spoke up. "Give 'im some space and let 'im go."

Tooth blinked back at the pooka and released Jack from the grip she had on his shoulders. She hadn't even realized the awkward, twisted position she'd been holding him in. His legs were still under the blanket on the hospital bed. His upper torso was upright and half-lifted out of the bed by Tooth's over-enthusiastic grip. All of that coupled with the fact that he'd turned his head away from the rest of them left him in what must've been a very uncomfortable position. If the boy hadn't been so naturally flexible, he would've probably strained a muscle by now. She released his shoulders as if she'd been burned.

When released, Jack's body settled in a sitting position on the bed. He'd turned his head back around and was now staring fixedly at his feet for a full minute before the next attempt at engagement.

"'Ey, Frostbite…y' still with us?" Bunny tentatively ribbed him. Jack did not even acknowledge he'd said anything, so he waved his paw in front of the boy's eyes. "'Allo, Earth to Jack…" Jack's brows twitched together momentarily at Bunnymund's use of his actual name, but gave no other reaction to the pooka's attempts to engage him. Frustrated, the Australian bent down and stuck his face directly into Jack's line-of-sight. "Oi! I don't like bein' ignored!" The boy's gaze dropped like it had with Tooth earlier and displayed a look of such deep pain and shame that it effectively quelled the irascible Guardian.

The four standing Guardians exchanged a look and quietly moved to the side to discuss.

"He blames himself for what happened," began Tooth, "and I don't know whether I'd made any progress convincing him otherwise when you three came in. He'd been about to say something, I think, but now he's just sort of shut down."

"Aye. It's a little scary to see 'im like this;" admitted Bunny, "I know Frostbite's no stranger to pain, but 'e always covers it with one o' 'is smiles."

"Jack is strong. He will make it through this. Hyas said we must no push and let him do it in his own time. That is what we will do." North's words were full of conviction, but the others couldn't help but notice the slight note of trepidation in his voice.

Sandy, who'd been contemplative during this exchange, began to form images above his head. The first was of Jack sitting in the bed with his body curled up defensively, with the other four guardians nearby and reaching out to him. The sand-Jack only shook his head and curled tighter. Then the sand-Tooth slowly came forward while the other three backed away. She sat by the cowering boy and soothingly stroked his form. After a few seconds, she was reprieved by sand-Bunny, who simply sat with the boy, occasionally patting his back. Sand-Bunny was replaced with sand-Sandy, and then he was subsequently replaced with sand-North, and the cycle repeated. Throughout, the sand-Jack unfolded and relaxed, began to look at and silently converse with the sand-Guardians, hugging each of them in turn until he eventually came into a group-hug with all of them.

"Sandy is right," said North, the most used to interpreting the Sandman's images and ignoring Bunnymund's sour look at the concept of a group hug, "All of us is too much for Jack right now. We must take turns like before so he feels less pressure. He _will_ come back to us."

The last was said with no trepidation at all.

* * *

A week had passed since Jack had awoken from his ordeal, and little had changed in the Winter Spirit's demeanor. The other Guardians stuck to their shifts to never leave him alone, but the boy only ever acknowledged their presence by pointedly looking anywhere but at them. When Phil the yeti brought his food, the rail-thin teen would eat lightly and mechanically under the worried furball's watchful eye. It was during these times that the other four Guardians would have their now-daily how-is-Jack-doing meeting.

"I'm beginnin' ta think that Hyas 'ad no idea what 'e was talkin' about." Groused Bunnymund.

"Yes, is definitely not what we were hoping, but he had big trauma, yes? Is not easy thing to recover from." North said, attempting to soothe the volatile pooka.

"I don't know what else we can do," Toothiana said, flitting agitatedly back and forth, "Sandy, can you tell if we're getting through to him at all? Is he getting better and we just can't see it?"

The diminutive Guardian found himself the immediate center of attention, and fought down a stab of irritation at the Man in the Moon for not giving him a voice. The realm of the mind was an incredibly complicated place and pictograms could only go so far. He nodded slowly as he pondered the best way to impart what he knew to the others. A partial-Jack formed slowly, a macabre figure consisting only of an arm, a quarter-torso, and a half-head. The other Guardians watched, mesmerized, as the image slowly dragged itself to another small block of dreamsand, picked it up with its one arm, and fit it onto the one of the missing sides of his torso. It then repeated the process with an additional block, this time fitting it into his head.

After the third iteration, Bunny was the first to find his voice. "So…yer sayin' that Frostbite's in pieces and right now 'e's puttin' 'imself back together?"

Sandy nodded, giving the pooka an encouraging look to go on, but it was North that picked up the narrative.

"And, is going slow because he only has small amount together yet, da?"

Another nod and Tooth nearly choked on her sympathetic sobs to finish.

"And he has to do it on his own, right? There's nothing we can do at this point to help? But the more progress he makes, the faster he'll get, right?" She was really showing the hummingbird side of her personality now; the final sentence was almost too fast to understand as her voice rose in a plea for hope.

Sandy quickly floated up to the agitated fairy and grabbed her by the shoulders to look her in the eyes. When he knew he had her attention, he gave a firm nod.

"Good, then we give him more time. You let us know if you see anything we can do, da? Good. We will be there for him." North's affirmation effectively ended the discussion.

* * *

It was almost a month before the Guardians saw tangible evidence of real progress. Each had taken to passing the time in a different way during their vigil over the silent Jack. North moved his ice toy prototype equipment into the room, enabling him to complete the time-consuming work as well as have a potential rehab tool available for whenever Jack did recover. Sandy sculpted large and intricate dreamscapes while surreptitiously working his particular brand of magic on the recovering boy's psyche. Toothiana put her delicate and nimble hands to use and taught herself how to knit lace, the intricate designs appearing as if by magic from her flying needles. If the designs were winter- and ice-themed more often than not, then who would complain? Bunnymund decided to catch up on his reading. Before he'd become a Guardian, he'd been very well-educated, although he'd usually avoided this particular pastime around others because he felt rather silly-looking in his reading glasses.

It was during Bunny's shift that it happened. The Australian's warrior instincts led him to believe that the boy had been sneaking glances at his bespectacled face over the last few days. Today, he was more than certain and had, in fact, caught the boy out of the corner of his eye. Something, he didn't know what exactly, told him that now was the right time for a little nudge. Following that instinct, Bunny snapped his book shut, causing the boy to jump and quickly look back away.

"I'm gonna go hit the loo. Bein' alone for a few minutes won't make much of a difference to ya, will it, Frostbite?" He made to stand up and walk away, and even though he'd been hoping for _something_ he barely managed to stop himself jumping high enough to hit the ceiling when Jack's hand shot out to grab his wrist in a death-grip. Bunny shot a quick glance at the thin white-knuckled hand clamped around his dark fur and followed the arm up to the owner of that hand. A pair of wide, pleading blue eyes met his and he felt a smile start to tug at the side of his mouth. "Hey now, that's more like it, Frostbite."

He half expected Jack to look away again in response, but was even more gratified to see a small twitch at the corner of the boy's mouth instead. "Don't worry, kid, I ain't gonna go anywhere…but think you could let me 'ave my paw back? I 'ear circulation's a good thing in a body." The boy quickly dropped the limb and the small twitch became a sheepish half-smile.

Three hours later, Toothiana flitted into the room and found herself hitting the ground as her entire body froze in surprise at what she saw. The two youngest Guardians had taken the stool from North's craftbench and were kneeling on either side of it…armwrestling.

"'Ow the 'ell are you 'olding me back so well with those skinny little toothpicks?" Bunny was demanding of the boy.

Jack only grinned back in response as his arm firmly held its position against the pooka's furred limb. Both were oblivious to the arrival of the colorful Tooth Fairy. She felt her heart tighten in her chest when she saw that grin, so like the Jack of old, that the fact that he was looking directly into Bunny's face as he did so was almost secondary.

Baby Tooth flitted in right behind her and also froze momentarily in midair. She, however, took one look at the grin on the boy's face and barreled into his cheek head-first. The impact broke whatever method of concentration Jack was using in his match against Bunny, who let out a bark of victory as he slammed the boy's arm to one side as Jack toppled the other way in surprise at the impact.

"Oi! Frostbite, you OK, there? What 'appened?...Oh." He'd finally notice the presence of the two fairies. "'Ey Tooth, time for a shift-change already?"

Tooth finally found her voice again. "He's…he's…and you…" She stopped and took a deep breath to steady her nerves. "Bunny," she said in a dangerously-sweet tone, "could I talk to you for a minute?"

The pooka threw a look at the currently-occupied Winter Spirit and nodded. Rising to his feet, he padded over to the small fairy. "What's up?" He said, feigning ignorance.

"What do you think!? When did _that_ happen?" She said, gesturing towards the animated, lopsided, and surprisingly quiet wrestling match occurring on the floor.

"Um…a few hours or so?" Bunny said, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "'e didn't want me to leave, and I thought yellin' for someone'd do more 'arm than good." He added, forestalling the irate Fairy's followup question.

Mollified, the Fairy relaxed her aggressive posture. "Has he said anything?"

The pooka's brows knitted together in clear concern, "Not a peep, 'e didn't even cry out in surprise when Baby Tooth 'it 'im."

"Well…at least he's on the mend…"

"Yeah, I'm a lot less inclined to find Hyas again and smack 'im around a bit."

Tooth only smiled in response as they both turned to watch the happy pair on the floor.

* * *

It was a full two months before the other Guardians returned Jack's staff to him and let him leave Santoff Clausen. The boy had been up and about, almost back to his old self for two weeks at that point, and the final week was full of pleading looks and slick floors. It had been a number of years since Jack had had to deal with the overprotectiveness of the older Guardians and he'd forgotten just how annoying it could be. He had not been made to stay cooped up for extended periods of time, and he'd needed to get _out_. His oldest friend was waiting for him.

Almost immediately after he'd set foot outside of building with his staff in hand, the wind picked him up and swirled him around in silent and happy greeting. Grinning widely and laughing silently, Jack let the wind have its way with him, allowing the random tumble to wash his cares away.

The primary reason the other Guardians had been so protective was because Jack hadn't uttered a single syllable since his ordeal. It wasn't that he hadn't tried; in fact he'd had a few false starts like the one with Toothiana right after he'd regained consciousness, but to no avail. As far as the others could tell, there was nothing _physically_ wrong with his throat or vocal cords, but for some reason, he couldn't seem to remember how to use them. It was like an empty space in both his conscious and subconscious. As far as he could gather from Sandy, it was a piece of himself he'd as yet been unable to collect. He didn't really understand much of that existential stuff that was Sandy's bailiwick, but he trusted the small Guardian's judgment, and the small man kept affirming over and over again that it'd just be a matter of time.

As he was wont to do, Jack idly wondered what his and Sandy's conversations looked like; two equally-silent beings, one communicating with gestures and facial expressions, the other in golden pictograms. _Hmm…I'm going to have to figure out a more efficient way for me to communicate, but for now…it's time for a snow day in Buenos Aires._

The teen zoomed south, twirling like a snowflake in the wind.

* * *

**A/N: I know I've been gone for several weeks, and I'm sorry about that. I was hoping to update Olympian Bending today, too, but it'll probably take a few days for me to get that one going...I've got a lot of non-fanfic work to do...and the next installment isn't flowing very well.**

**Anyway, back to this one. I did a little research on the myths associated with the various Guardians. So the movie canon says that Jack is over 300 years old. The Easter Bunny myth has been around for about 230 years. In written lore, the Sandman's only been around a few decades longer than the Easter Bunny, but in reality, it makes sense to me that the theory of the Sandman was around centuries before that...basically when people started trying to explain crusty eyes. Santa Claus dates from somewhere around the 1500's, and the Tooth Fairy myth appears in the early Norse writings. So, technically, Jack is _not_ the youngest of the Guardians, just the newest. It is primarily his appearance and demeanor that makes us all think of him as being so young.**

**No real impact on the story, just explaining my "two youngest Guardians" description earlier.**

**I'm still a little amazed at the response I've gotten on this story, probably part of why I enjoy writing it so much.**

**On to Review responses!**

**Rahar Moonfire: Thanks! That's what I was going for. Jack is just such a rich character to work with, as many other fics I've read have proven.**

**Arbaon: Gotta admit, I'm glad to hear that, since true originality has never been my strong suit.**

**Nebelkind: Hmm...interesting thought, but Jack's never felt all that vindictive to me. He's been through enough other hardship that I think he'd be more likely to try to shove it all behind him and try to get back to normal as long as he's assured it won't happen again. I figure that one of his early orders of business is paying Hyas a visit, but couldn't really bring myself to write the exchange explicitly.**

**Effugere: Yes, but that comes in Part 3. Both Parts 1 and 2 have been serving as a setup for Part 3. Hell, Part 3 is what I was imagining when I first started writing this. You'll see =D.**

**Fallen Maiar: Well, I do loves me mah Greek Mythology, hence my fondness of Percy Jackson.**

**blakkyu: Well...mostly alright. I'll admit that it was only yesterday that I started thinking the muteness would be semi-permanent. **

**Everyone else: thanks for the encouragement. I hope you guys continue to enjoy.**

**Review!**

**Tzapporah signing off!**


	9. Chapter 8-1 (Interlude Pt 1)

**A/N:Well, for those of you that follow my Avatar/PJO crossover, you already know that I live again. Once again, sorry for the late update, had a _lot_ of stuff on my plate. **

**Now, I know I said that this chapter was going to be the beginning of Part 3...but I really felt the need for an interlude. The good news is that the interlude should be about 3~4 chapters, 2.5 of which are already written, so the next few should be fairly quick updates. I do have a reason for the interlude, which you'll see later.**

* * *

**Interlude**

**Chapter 8.1: Personal Consequences**

Cyndi stared wistfully out the window, wishing for something that just wasn't going to happen. It was finally starting to get cold in Phoenix, not that it ever got truly "cold" except for that freak ice storm a few months ago, and even that mercury drop only lasted a few hours. By now back in Iowa, snow would have been covering the sidewalks for at least a week. She loved snow; it always made everything so beautifully pristine and white, like frosting on a cake. That wasn't even counting the other upsides. Snow meant snow days, and snow days meant snowball fights, and snowball fights meant Jack. Since the move, their playtime had become limited to the two weeks of Christmas Break when they'd go back to visit her grandparents in Iowa. She was far from happy with the arrangement, but at least the anticipation of the trip each year made life in Phoenix bearable. This was why she'd been devastated last week when her mother had announced that they would not be making the Iowa trip this year. Nothing had been the same since The Accident…

She ruthlessly put thoughts of the incident and its fallout out of her mind and turned back to her homework. Maybe Romeo and Juliet would help take her mind off her own problems—through pure schadenfreude if nothing else.

Fifteen minutes later found her staring at a half-written essay on the unfairness of Juliet's situation from the learned perspective of a twelve-year-old. She was quite satisfied with much of it; the comparisons of the vacant Juliet with Bella had felt incredibly satisfying to write. She couldn't understand her classmates' obsession with those books. She _hated_ useless heroines, an opinion she knew all of her English teachers were very familiar with and she was usually able to get a good bit of mileage out of it in her writing. Unfortunately in this case, the momentum of the rant had only carried her halfway to her goal and now she was stuck. "Okay," she said quietly to herself, "Now what?"

The rhetorical question was answered by a rap on her window. She jumped and spun towards the sudden noise, reaching for the Louisville Slugger she kept under her desk. She relaxed immediately, however, upon seeing the unexpected and welcome figure hovering outside of her window, waving energetically.

"Jack!" She exclaimed happily as she rushed to let the winter spirit in. "What are you doing in Phoenix?" she asked, wrapping the boy in a bone-crushing hug.

When no response was forthcoming, she barreled on through with her monologue as only a 12-year-old girl was able, "I thought I wasn't gonna get to see you this year 'cause Mom cancelled the Iowa trip 'cause of the money. I wasn't gonna be able to tell you about Justin's new girlfriend or that I started babysitting or how much Junior High sucks—especially English 'cause the books they have us read are majorly depressing—or ANYTHING!" When she finally stopped for breath, she noticed that Jack was looking at her with an amused expression, but there was something about it that gave her pause. Jack was almost always smiling in some way, but there was a darkness behind the smile this time…a darkness she couldn't quite place. Not only that, but the usually-boisterous and frequently-loquacious Winter Spirit hadn't made a single sound since he'd entered her room.

Jack noticed her sudden scrutiny and began to shift uncomfortably. "Jack…what's wrong? I've never seen you like this before." He looked away and pursed his lips as if trying to think of how to respond.

"Why haven't you said anything?" she finally asked with more than a hint of trepidation.

He looked up into her eyes with a calm sadness and made a cutoff gesture with his hand in front of his throat.

"What? Your voice is gone?" He nodded "Why? What happened? _How_ could it have happened?"

A sadly bemused half-smile graced his face and he shrugged; an inexpertly-executed gesture to indicate he had no idea.

Cyndi, however, had been dealing with an angsty teenage brother for a few years now, and an injured one for a few months and wasn't fooled for a second. "Bull. You know exactly what happened. Tell me."

He ran his hand through his hair as his initial surprise at her bluff call made way for helpless frustration. She could tell he was trying to figure out how to tell her, but was limited by the very thing he was trying to explain.

"Sorry, I was being stupid. It's probably a lot harder to explain it than you can without your voice." She received a sad nod in response. "Hmm…how about…you can read and write, right?"

The boy held up a finger and thumb about an inch apart and sheepishly braced himself for her expected onslaught.

"Only a little bit?" she asked in a deadpan "You told me you've been around for over 300 years and you're only _barely LITERATE_?" She might have hated English and writing, but she was an avid reader and the idea was a bit of an affront to her sensibilities.

A guilty smile quirked the boy's lips and he began to straighten from his defensive position as he saw her relax.

"Ok…ok…we'll just have to think of something else, then."

"Who's 'we'?" came the unexpected voice of Justin from the hallway. "Cyndi, I hope you're not voicechatting with your friends when you're supposed to be doing homework just 'cause Mom and Dad are out. They did ask me to watch—" His teasing monologue was broken off when he reached her door and saw the Winter Spirit flashing an ingratiating and sheepish grin at him with a hand upraised in greeting.

The grin quickly melted to worry, panic and a tinge of horror as Jack processed the full extent of the other boy. The teen stood—barely—heavily leaning on cane-like European-style crutches, his right leg in a heavy-duty walking-cast. He also looked thinner and less fit than before, but the worst part of it all was the cold glare the darker boy was giving the pale Guardian.

"You." He bit out with venom, and Jack's face did the impossible and paled even more, his face approaching the hue of his hair. "What are _you_ doing here?" Guilt, pain and horror built in Jack's pale blue eyes as he processed the injuries and Justin's monologue continued. "You're the entire _reason_ for this, you bastard. I _saw_ you just before that truck hit us. I _SAW_ YOU!" Justin was livid, angry tears streaming down his face, and Jack's silence only angered him more. "SAY _SOMETHING_ YOU BASTARD!"

Cyndi couldn't keep quiet any longer. "The ice storm _was_ you, Jack? _Why?_ Mom and Justin almost _died_ in that crash. Why'd you do it?"

The young Guardian stood staring at the two siblings, eyes bleak and body shaking like a cornered animal.

"Get out." Said Justin quietly, voice rising slowly in an angry crescendo. "Didn't you hear me? You're not welcome here. Just GET THE FUCK _OUT_!"

Jack shot out the window, crystalline tears streaming behind him in his wake.

* * *

**A/N: Can ya tell I really hate the NID? Yeah...look what they made me make Jack do...um...sure, let's go with that...**

**Review Responses Time!**

**Effugure: Hrmm...um...well, damn. I guess it's good to know what the original source material was. I've got to get around to reading those books now. So I'm gonna call artistic license and actual history and stick with my feelings on Bunny. (Translation: I'm not going to go back and fix it 'cause I like my headcanon...at least until I read them myself and come up with a way to reconcile.)**

**K4RLY3: Yeah...I know it barely ever snows at all in BA, but Jack was still not in the best mental state, and he was also partially trying to force himself to go back to the vicinity where the whole mess started. Besides, BA is _totally_ due for a snow day, and if it's like the other places I've lived that aren't used to snow, it wouldn't even take that much of it to cause one.**

**peppymint: While I admit, your question made me go "ooooh," I'm not actually planning on playing with Pitch in this story, except in maybe one chapter. Then, again, my plans often change, considering my original idea for this fic was just Part 3...which I haven't even gotten to yet and has gone through a _massive_ metamorphosis since its inception.**

**Rahar Moonfire: Heh, yeah, he needs that. The voice thing is one of my unexpected developments on writing the story. I got the idea 'cause I was watching the Firefly episode "Safe" with the little girl Ruby, whose voice had been "scared away." I do actually have a plan for him to get it back, but it has now become a pivotal plot device.**

**That's all for now, Tzapporah signing off!**


	10. Chapter 8-2 (Interlude Pt 2)

**A/N: Well, as promised, here's a fairly quick update. I'm checking over part 3 of the interlude and will have it up soon as well. I'm just starting working on part 4, which if all goes to plan, will be the last bit of the interlude. **

**But enough of my jabbering, on with the story!**

* * *

**Interlude**

**Chapter 8.2: The Message**

The Tooth Fairy's job is to collect children's lost teeth for safekeeping and leave a small gift in exchange. Unlike Santa Claus, there were no asking for specific gifts or mini-bribes of milk and cookies. The exchange was executed like a dead drop between spies with no interaction between the parties. This was why Tooth cherished what few notes and letters her fairies did bring back to her from their rounds.

The most common of these were IOU's from children who'd accidentally swallowed their lost tooth. This was an occurrence she'd run into early in her existence and had discovered that she and all of the small fairies had a very special shared magical ability; they could magically and cleanly teleport the swallowed tooth and only the tooth out of the child and into their possession. She wasn't about to let any of the precious memories that she was Guardian of be lost or destroyed.

The second type of note was a small thank-you note written by the children, usually at the behest of parents trying to teach them manners. Notes like these were brought to her by her fairies initially so she could read them and then pinned on the wall in a large room inside her castle, treasured forever.

Occasionally, she'd get a note from a child who seemed to be crying out for someone, anyone, to help them. These she would share with the other Guardians and they would see what they were able to do for the child. Every time she received one of these notes, her heart would break a little until something was done.

In all of her centuries, these messages fell into one of these three categories, which was why the message that Baby Tooth now brought her made her fall about a foot before catching herself when her wings froze in surprise at the first sentence.

_Dear Tooth Fairy,_

_ It's Toothiana, right? I really am sorry about sending you a message this way, but it was the only thing I could come up with. I kind of took advantage of a little boy that I babysit losing his tooth to get this letter to you, since I'm twelve now and losing one of my own would be a bit painful. My name is Cyndi Lorenz, and I really need to talk to you or one of the other Guardians. It's about Jack. Something happened the other day...something bad. Please, he's one of my best friends and I'm worried._

_ Please send someone soon._

_ P.S. I live in Phoenix now, it used to be Iowa. You should be able to find me, but watch out for my big brother…I'll explain everything._

Tooth started flittering around and becoming more and more agitated as she read the short letter. What could have happened? Was he hurt? She left the rest of the collection chores that day to her small fairies and flew as fast as she could to Santoff Clausen.

North was in his office working on his ice-sculpture prototypes when his door burst open. Expecting to see a panicking yeti, he was a bit surprised to look up from his work to see a highly-agitated Toothiana in the doorway to his office, a piece of paper clutched in her hand. "Tooth, what is it? Is something bad?"

She wordlessly pushed the paper into his hand. His eyes grew wide as he read the letter from the concerned twelve-year-old, his expression quickly mirroring the worry in Tooth's features. "Have you seen Jack in the past few days, North?" She asked when it was clear he was finished reading.

"No, but I don't see him every time he visits Pole. Phil would know; I call for him." He then proceeded to command a passing yeti to make sure Phil got there quickly.

It took less than five minutes for the yeti in question to arrive, but it felt like an hour to the agonizing Tooth. She barely even registered the mountain of fur's disheveled state; looking exhausted and with splatters of frosting hardening in different places on his body. He said something in yetish as he entered, probably an explanation and/or apology for his state and a question his boss about why he was called.

"Was Jack here in last few days?" North demanded. At the yeti's affirmative response, "Two days ago. Anything seem wrong when you see him?"

The yeti's features stretched a bit in an expression of painful sympathy and sadness as he garbled and choked out what he'd seen.

"He was curled up in a corner in his room and crying about something?" This was extremely disconcerting because Jack _never_ let anyone see him cry. "Why you not _tell_ me when this happen?"

The yeti's semi-defiant response was understandable to anyone. "He made you promise, didn't he?" Tooth said softly. "It's been over twenty years, and he still can't share his pain with us. What happened after that?"

North translated the yeti's answering mumbled rumbles, "Phil stayed with him until he fell asleep. Boy was gone by morning."

"Oh! We need to find him!" Exclaimed Tooth, half-sobbing, as she flitted nervously in the direction of the globe room.

North caught her by the shoulder. "Wait, I think maybe we want to talk to little Cyndi first. You know Jack never tell us anything unless he has to. Someone need to talk to her; problem is I do not know which of us she'll be able to see. The rest of us have many many believers all over, but many stop before they become teenager. Jack has small, but growing number, that keep until much older."

"Well, she sent _me_ the letter." Tooth said defensively.

North turned his hand to a more comforting grip. "Yes, but that not necessarily mean she believes. She tried only idea she had a prayer might work quickly. No guarantee, and you cannot afford so long of a trip to find out while you're working unless absolutely have to." She gave him a pained glare, angry at the truth in his words. "I have similar problem. Most not really believe in me by twelve. Neither of us have direct contact."

"Then, Sandy?" Tooth asked and then immediately rejected. "No, she may believe in him, but she said she needed to talk, and it didn't sound like the kind of talk she'd be happy to have with pictograms. So that leaves—"

As if on cue a rabbit hole opened up in the hallway not 5 feet from them and a blue-furred head popped out. "Oi, am I late for grub?"

* * *

**A/N: Yup, gonna send Bunny in...got a couple reasons for it to be him, but you'll see at least one during the next chapter.**

**Review Responses:**

**LittleMrsAdams: Oh got, your review made me laugh so hard...is that a bad thing? Well, noone ever said Schadenfreude was nice, but everybody does it.**

**Rahar Moonfire: Hang in there, have some patience. Part of a good story is not resolving the pivotal conflict too quickly. I think you'll like the next chapter (evil grin)**

**Zuzanny: Thanks, I wish I could say that the twists were uber-planned ahead of time, but that's only partially true. The number of morphs this story has taken as I've gotten ideas is plain ridiculous.**

**Tzapporah signing off!**


	11. Chapter 8-3 (Interlude Pt 3)

**A/N: Woah, was not prepared for the responses about Justin. Calm down, guys, he had a reason for his reaction. Granted, I realized that the exposition that I'd originally written to _explain_ said reaction ended up getting cut from the first part of the interlude...so you guys didn't get that info. I think I've managed to integrate it decently into this part. Also, hopefully you guys'll like Justin a little better after this (he's 16, by the way).**

* * *

**Interlude **

**Ch 8.3: ****Oh So Smart OR Oh So Pleasant**

A knock heralded Cyndi's arrival in his room. "Justin…are you busy?"

Justin sighed; he'd been expecting this for the last few days; she'd been looking at him contemplatively when she thought he wasn't looking. The incident with Jack in her room had been weighing heavily on both of their minds. It wasn't as if he'd thought that Jack had been malicious, just massively irresponsible. That irresponsibility had nearly crushed his right tibia and given him multiple compound fractures through the rest of his legs. That irresponsibility had cost him his summer as well as the first month of his Junior year. That irresponsibility had probably cost him his hope of a Baseball scholarship; if the Doctors were right, he'd probably never run again, much less play Baseball. The thoughts of those costs had built and stewed inside of him over those months, so when he'd seen the cause of it all, he'd kind of lost it. After he'd calmed down, and now that he'd had a few days to process Jack's horrified and hurt reaction as well as his silence—that still rankled—he realized that something more serious than playful antics getting out of hand must have happened. Perhaps Cyndi'd learned a bit about it before Justin had broken up their little pow-wow.

"Nah, I'm just doing dallies on the hunter. Come on in." he said as he turned his chair to the door that had opened to admit his sister...trailed by the vague impression of a figure that led him to believe she'd come with one of the Guardians; good, someone who might have more information. It was odd…he _knew_ through Jack that the others were existed, but he didn't really quite _believe_ in them anymore. "Who'd you bring with you?"

Cyndi gave a little start and shot a surprised glance at the almost-empty space next to her. "You can see him?"

His lips quirked in a little smile. "Not exactly, but I can tell he's there. Would I be right in guessing that this is about our frosty friend?"

His sister gave him a searching look. "So you do still consider him a friend?"

"I'm honestly not sure," he said, scratching his head, "even as mad as I was the other night, I was waiting and hoping, but he didn't say _anything_. He just looked at me like a kicked puppy, which made me feel rotten for yelling at him, which made me even madder at him. I…I might be able to forgive him if he'd just explain himself, or at least apologize."

"Ah," she said, right index finger raised, "that…might be a problem. Jack conveyed a little bit of it to me that night before you came in, and Bunny filled in some of the details…" She hesitated, unsure of how to continue.

"Oh?" he said slightly skeptically, "and what did Harvey say, Elwood?"

"He _said_," she growled out as she reached over and punched him in the shoulder before continuing in a more normal tone, "that Jack lost his voice."

_That_ was definitely not what he'd been expecting. "Wait, what? He didn't _look_ sick."

"No, not sore-throat lost-his-voice, dumbass." She retorted hotly, "He _lost_ lost it. He can't speak at all anymore."

Justin massaged his forehead, "Ok…from the top, _how _and _when_ did it happen?"

He listened as she served as translator for the almost-invisible Easter Bunny. The more he listened, the more guilty he felt about what he'd said to Jack the other night. He could tell that the rabbit was leaving some of the more disturbing details out in what he was telling Cyndi, but Justin could read between the lines well enough. What he heard reminded him of the little girl Ruby from that episode of _Firefly_, River had said: "Her voice got scared away." And that's what it sounded like had happened to the Spirit of Winter.

When Cyndi and Bunny had reached the end of the narrative, he took a cleansing breath. "Ok," he said, clearheaded and thinking critically, "I only have one question. How does Mr. Chatterbox communicate now?"

She seemed a little taken aback by his question. "Well…um…with me he just kinda pantomimed and made facial expressions….Bunny says that's what he's seen, too."

"Mhmm…that's fine for simple stuff, but it won't do for anything more complex. Can he read?"

Cyndi winced a bit, "I asked the same thing, turns out the answer's 'a little bit'."

"'Sarite, writing everything down wouldn't fit his personality, anyway—" He smacked himself in the forehead as his face lit up in realization. "Of _course!_ Why didn't I think of that sooner?"

"What? What?" she asked excitedly.

He turned a sly grin on his sister and the vague figure beside her. "Think he'd like to learn Sign Language?"

At that moment, he didn't care if his suggestion worked or not. The sheer joy on his sister's face at the possibility was reward enough.

* * *

**A/N: A bit shorter than the previous, but it had a few revisions. Still working on the final part/wrapup of the interlude. Hopefully I'll have it up in a few days, along with a new chapter of Olympian Bending...**

**Review Responses!**

**Rahar Moonfire: Sorry, you don't actually get to hear/see Bunny this chapter...I couldn't resist the Harvey reference. Besides, the whole difference between knowing and believing is an important feature of Part 3, so I took the opportunity to incorporate it into this.**

**Fallen Maiar: Yeah, I tried to explain above. No, they didn't think he was being malicious, since they've never known him to be. This is part of why his actions made so little sense to them.**

**LittleMrsAdams: Hope you like what you see coming =P.**

**peppymint: Unfortunately I don't, and now kinda wish I did, have something planned for the NID getting something back at them...I'll have to mull on that. **

**random Guest person: Glad you like it.**

**Jack's hardships aren't completely over, but there's some light at the end of the tunnel. Don't worry, I'm not cruel enough to end anything really depressing.**

**Tzapporah signing off!**


	12. Chapter 8-4 (Interlude Pt 4)

**A/N: Aaand, I got another one up! Wewt! I'm hoping to get new chapters up of the other two, too...but I'm at least satisfied that I got both this and Olympian Bending. *whew* Well, school's technically over, although I've got another week of Summer school left, so I _should_ be having more free-time, so hopefully more updates. **

**Anyway, a couple notes for this chapter:**

**1. Some of the dialogue in this chapter are in German, and before you try to Google Translate it, you should know that I built in some Aussie accent into what Bunny's saying. I'll have the translations of the text in the postscript A/N.**

**2. This is going to serve as a grammatical/style note for the rest of the story: Dialogue written in quotes _and_ italics means it's being signed, not said. I'm also using this to distinguish it from what's just being _thought_. **

**3. This is the final part of the Interlude. The next chapter will be the beginning of Part 3...also known as the part of the story I originally envisioned when I began writing this.**

* * *

**Interlude**

**8.4: Confluence and Commencement**

Over the years, finding Jack had become one of Bunny's more common off-season duties. The kid had a talent for hiding himself and eluding the other Guardians. Bunny's tracking abilities and sheer speed made him the most adept at finding the wayward Frost Child. Being Bunny, he complained a good deal about this fact, but he was secretly fond of the cat-and-mouse game. He would never admit to the others that he'd gotten Internet access in the Warren just so that he could use weather reports to aid him in those particular duties. The others would never really understand…and he didn't want to even imagine the teasing he'd get if they ever discovered his Angry Birds addiction. So, with a brief trip back to the Warren to make a quick search for snowfall, he popped out of a rabbit hole in Düsseldorf…and got a snowball directly in the face.

"Der Osterhase!" A half-dozen young children shrieked in delight before bombarding him with questions. "Warum sind Sie hier im Winter? Kommen Sie für eine Schneeballschlacht?"

Sputtering a little bit from the snowy onslaught, Bunny switched into German mode and said, "Noin, kleine Knöchel-Beißer, ich für moinen Freun', den Winter Kind suchen. Has' du ihn gesayhen?"

"Wer? Der Winter Kind? Wer ist das?" asked a boy confusedly.

Bunny winced a little bit at that response; the poor kid still didn't have as many believers as he should, the twinge of sympathy was softened somewhat when another child piped up, "Ooh ooh, Ich sah ihn! Er war jezt hier! Er ging so!" The excited girl was bouncing on the balls of her feet as she pointed westward.

"Daynke!" Said Bunny and sped off in the indicated direction. As he read, he heard the little girl excitedly speaking to the others, "Er heiβt Jack Frost. Er hat blaue Augen und weiβ Haare—" _Chalk a few more up for Frosty, _he thought with a grin.

A few seconds later, the teen in question came into view; carefully building up a pair of snowbanks around a group of older children, no doubt making sure there would be plenty of ammunition for a far fiercer snowball fight than he'd begun with the small children around the corner.

"Oi, Frostbite," the boy's head snapped up in surprise at the call, "when yer done there, kamere, 'cause I gotta talk ta ya." His face took on a guarded expression, as if he sensed what Bunny wanted to talk to him about and was dreading the inevitable. Seeing this, Bunny tried to soften his expression as much as possible; after all, he had good news for the Frost Child.

* * *

Jack tried to drag out his snowbank-building as long as possible. He'd not shown himself to any of the other Guardians since the encounter at the Lorenz's, and they tended to be a bit smothering when it came to problems with him. He'd been around for over 300 years, after all, and he'd never really _needed_ help taking care of himself that entire time. Until that one…incident, he'd always managed to get himself out of the predicaments he'd found himself in, and he always recovered.

The excited overtone to Bunny's patiently-waiting posture only served to heighten Jack's dread. Just what godawful, hare-brained idea had North or Tooth (It was _always_ one of them. Despite the term, the rabbit was the most level-headed of the bunch.) come up with now? Even with the procrastination, it was not long before he finished his labor. One of the surrounding teens beat him to the punch on initiating the fight, however. One second a snowball flew through the air and hit a girl in the back of the head and the next it was an all-out war. Jack tried to join in at first, but the patiently-waiting Bunny and the events of the last few days weighed on his mind, taking the energy and—for lack of a better word—fire out of his usual enjoyment of this pastime.

As such, less than two minutes into the fight, Jack floated/strode over to the waiting Pooka, giving the rabbit a look that plainly said, "Ok…speak your piece."

"Y'ready ta hear me out, Frostbite?" asked Bunny.

_I wouldn't've come over here if I weren't, Kangaroo._ Jack nodded his affirmation.

"Tooth got a letter today."

_Really? Tooth? That's a bit odd, but why does it apply to me?_ He furrowed his brows in curiosity at the Pooka.

"It was a strange letter, from a gel named Cyndi Lorenz."

Jack stiffened in surprise, his fight-or-flight reflexes kicking in. _Now_ he knew what it had to do with him, and he was dreading what came next.

"She said she was worried about ya and asked ta talk ta one o' the rest o' us." His eyes were fixed on Jack's. "She tol' me wot 'appened the other night."

Jack winced involuntarily. That was definitely _not_ an episode he'd wanted to share with the other Guardians. He'd seriously hurt and almost _killed_ one of his own believers. Being controlled like a puppet or no, there were still things that were unforgivable.

"An' then _I_ 'ad a talk with 'er brother."

Wait, what? Jack was pretty sure that Justin didn't believe in the Easter Bunny anymore. Jack could've sworn he remembered Justin not been able to see Bunny three years ago when the kid still lived in Iowa, how did Bunny talk to him today?

"Ok, ok, Cyndi translated fo' me. 'E couldn' really see me." Bunny amended, correctly interpreting Jack's surprised expression.

"Anyway. We explained what was goin' on," Jack winced visibly; he'd been on the receiving end of the Australian's "explanations". Bunny, however, was not currently looking at the boy and missed the reaction, "and 'e wants to apologize, an'—Oi, what's that face for?" The Pooka'd finally looked towards Jack and noticed the boy's clear discomfort.

Jack gave Bunny a helpless look. How could he possibly explain why what the giant Rabbit had said bothered him? Justin was one of his oldest and most consistent believers; the two's relationship had only improved and matured as the boy had aged. As such, he was fiercely protective of the teen, even more so than any of his other precious believers. Yes, it was true that Jack was hurt by what Justin had said, but he blamed himself more for causing it than the boy for saying it.

He opened his mouth and raised his hands, trying to figure out what to say—but the words wouldn't come, just like it had been for the past two months. Even when he knew _what_ he wanted to say, he couldn't seem to make his mouth form the words or his throat create the sounds. His head and shoulders drooped in defeat; there was no help for it. He took a deep, weary breath before looking back up at the Pooka and gesturing for him to continue.

Bunny studied him for a long moment, trying to figure out the latest chapter in the Jack-is-an-enigma saga, before choosing to avoid exacerbating the Spirit's mood further.

"—Right, anyway—I gave 'im a little rundown of the situation, an'—I gotta tell ya, Frostbite, whatcha lack in quantity you more'n make up for in quality. –'E not only understood—More'n I thought I'd let on, in fact—but 'e came up with a great idea for ya."

Jack couldn't help a swell of pride at Bunny's words about Justin, and made sure that the Pooka could definitely see that his curiosity had been piqued by that last statement.

Bunny grinned at the pale boy, "I think I'll let 'im and Cyndi tell it to ya."

Jack's mouth quirked a bit with impatience, something he knew wouldn't budge Bunny, and so tried a different tack, one that had worked a few times in the past. He gave Bunny his most adorable puppy-dog-eyes to beg for an explanation, but they had the exact opposite of the desired effect.

The Pooka simply threw his head back and laughed, "Aww nah, mate. I know lil' Cyindi's waitin' and hopin' ta see yer reaction. I ain't about ta take that kinda hope away from a kid. C'mon, Frostbite."

Quicker than Jack could react, the Rabbit had opened a hole beneath their feet and grabbed Jack's wrist, pulling the surprised boy down into the Warren after him.

* * *

*****One-and-a-half Years Later*****

"Justin Lorenz!"

Justin marched across the stage, limping a little more than usual without his cane, grinning ear-to-ear. The excited cheers from his family and the sound of pinkie-whistling from the white-haired spirit in blue—who'd braved the Arizona heat to attend—spinning in an aerial dance above the crowd filling his ears. He barely heard the rest of the words of his guidance counselor as he collected his diploma and faced the crowd. "Justin has been accepted to Ohio State University's Kinesiology program, where he intends to focus on trauma recovery."

Jack flew over to meet him as he walked off the stage, gesticulating wildly. The Winter Spirit was so excited, his signing was almost unintelligible. Justin was just barely able to make out things like "_That was awesome_!" and "_Sweet!_" A large part of the reason Justin had decided to go into Kinesiology was the massive success his sign language suggestion had had with Jack. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined Jack would take to the entire thing so well. Justin and Cyndi had convinced the ASL teacher at their school to give them weekly lessons so that they would be able to join the regular class the next year, Jack attending without the teacher's knowledge, of course. During the winter months, Jack, who was not exactly what you'd call the scholarly-type, would just sneak into the teacher's classroom and watch the lessons. Within a year, he was sneaking into college-level courses, and at Cyndi's suggestion, professional performances that boasted ASL interpreters. Cyndi and Justin had had to pull out all the stops just to keep up, but then Cyndi had taken it to the next level and began teaching it to the little kids she babysat. Before they knew it, at least rudimentary sign-language knowledge had grown into a fad, and if CNN were to be believed, a fad that was spreading, no doubt due to Jack and the efforts of the other Guardians. Apparently, the older Guardians had the ability to speak and understand any language their believers did, and had added the basic instruction of Sign Language to their efforts of building Jack's believer base; an act that had both embarrassed and deeply touched the Winter Spirit, as he'd confided in Justin earlier that year.

There was no hint of embarrassment in his behavior right now, though. Justin could only laugh at the excited spirit's antics before saying in an undertone, "and did you notice the best part, Jack?"

"_Huh?" _Jack signed back. "_What do you mean? Did I miss them giving you an award or something?"_

Jason's grin took on a conspirational flavor. "Think about it; I know you heard it."

"_Hmm…well, you'd said you'd have a surprise for me at your graduation, but I didn't….wait, Ohio? Did she say Ohio? You're going back where it's actually going to be cold most of the year!?"_ Jack's mouth was open in shocked anticipatory happiness.

Justin's grin, if possible, grew even bigger. "Yep, that was the idea. I know it's going to be a lot harder for me to keep my belief in you going, so I want you to be around as much as possible. I'm not going to let you lose me too easily. Talk to ya more after the ceremony, go gush to Cyndi; I know she wanted to see your reaction."

"_You got it! You have no idea how much this means to me. You're the best, man!"_ Jack signed as he sped off towards Cyndi to jabber, or what they jokingly called "hand-rave" to his little sister.

Justin closed his eyes and held his new diploma-case to his chest. When he was fifteen, Jack had told him about his first believer, Jamie, and how much he'd treasured him. But Jamie had outgrown his belief in Jack partially through high school, and Jamie's little sister Sophie had done similarly. Jack had told him to let him know that it was alright and he understood that Justin would outgrow and forget him and he wanted to say goodbye while he could. Justin had adamantly refused to believe he would ever forget his best friend and vowed that _he_ wouldn't abandon Jack like that.

The Winter Spirit had just smiled back at him, a hint of sadness about his countenance, "It's the nature of life, we all must grow and move on. I will miss you, but I will not regret or begrudge the change." It wasn't until that moment that Justin really understood that Jack was centuries older than he.

He'd glared defiantly back at the Winter Spirit before saying, "Well, I still don't think it'll actually happen, but I at the very least vow to break the record on longest-running believer. Got that?"

Jack had frozen in surprise for a moment before throwing his head back and laughing—a deep belly-laugh that would've done North proud—"Deal!"

The dying down of the cheering as the last of his classmates crossed the stage pulled Justin back to the present. "I don't care what you think, I'm not going to let myself break my original promise, Jack. I'm not going anywhere."

* * *

**And there we have it! The conclusion of the Justin Saga...for now. No current plans on bringing him in on Part 3, but the possibility is there. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can get that first chapter of it done, either =D.**

**Review Responses!**

**Rahar Moonfire: Haha! Part 3 takes place almost exclusively in the SGC, so...yes. And on the note of Justin's initial reaction...remember, he was sixteen and had had his original dreams of being a professional Baseball player crushed by his best friend...I think it makes complete sense. Three months is not enough time for a teenager to mentally recover from something like that.**

**-oh, and before anyone points out that I said two months in this chapter, remember, Jack was practically catatonic for a month.**

**SarahMDillon: Well, they first need to _know_ that it was the NID that did it...and I'm going to need to re-research their condition during the season that Part 3 takes place...which is when they'd possibly learn it...yeah, as satisfying as it would be, I haven't worked out yet how to give them their comuppance.**

**DYquem: Hope this makes you feel a bit better for Jack. Things are turning around.**

**blackkyu: Um...not completely sure how to respond to "cute," but okay. I kinda felt like doing a somewhat more upbeat interlude before more not-so-fun stuff happens again.**

**katikat: glad you like it.**

**Tzapporah signing off!**

* * *

***EDIT 06/16/2013* **

**Woops, I forgot to include the promised translations, so here they go:**

**Der Osterhase! Warum sind Sie hier im Winter? Kommen Sie für eine Schneeballschlacht?-** The Easter Bunny! Why are you here in winter? Did you come for a snowball fight?

**Noin, kleine Knöchel-Beißer, ich für moinen Freun', den Winter Kind suchen. Has' du ihn gesayhen?-**Aussie-accented: No, little Ankle-biter, I'm looking for my friend, the Winter Child. Have ya seen him?

**Wer? Der Winter Kind? Wer ist das?- **Who? The Winter Child? Who's that?

**Ooh ooh, Ich sah ihn! Er war jezt hier! Er ging so!-**Ooh ooh, I saw him! He was just here! He went that way!

**Daynke!- **Aussie-accented: Thank You!

**Er heiβt Jack Frost. Er hat blaue Augen und weiβ Haare— **-His name's Jack Frost. He has blue eyes and white hair...

**Hope that helps clarify a few things.**


	13. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hey look, another update! And I'm finally getting to the part of the story that made me want to start writing this thing in the first place. Yes, this is a short chapter, but it ended where it felt natural to me. I do actually know what I want to do next, so the following chapter shouldn't take anywhere near as long.**

**Lil' Line o' Litiguous Lard: I own neither universe, just the demented mind that decided to combine them.**

* * *

**Part 3**

**Chapter 9: Taunting Murphy**

"Jackson!"

_Eh?_

"Jackson, wait up!"

_Oh. It's just that guy. Why do I always do that?_ Jack thought ruefully to himself. _300 years, most of that invisible and I still react when I hear my name._ Granted, until he'd regained his memories a good two and a half decades ago, he hadn't _known_ that his name had once been "Jackson," but that didn't really matter at the moment. He was halfway through doing what he always did in this situation—shake his head and go on about his business—when the sound of a familiar voice stopped him short.

"Daniel! Cam! Wait for me."

_What? _What was _she_ doing here? He hadn't heard that voice since that time in Antarctica, and she worked _here_? He took new stock of the landscape. The woman—hadn't that one guy called her "Carter?"—was hustling towards tunnel in the side of the mountain. Large lettering on the arch of the tunnel's mouth read "CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN COMPLEX." He'd seen the place before, of course, and it had piqued his curiosity then, but not enough to investigate. He'd just dismissed it as another American military base out in a random place, but the presence of _her_ rekindled his interest in the place. He floated down to follow the trio in curiosity.

"Can you _believe_ how cold it is today?" said one of the men, "I swear, it keeps up like this and the 'gate's gonna be the only way out for a week."

The other man snorted. "You say that like that would be any different from normal. It's not like we don't spend most of our time at the SGC, anyway." He'd now lowered the hood of his warm jacket, and Jack thought he vaguely recognized him as one of the people who'd come to the rescue of the two in Antarctica. "Besides, I'd rather be down deep and warm than out in that stuff."

"Don't like the cold, Jackson?" Teased the man.

"Cam," Jackson replied cooly, "think about what sort of environments I've spent most of my life in. My parents were and then I was an archaeologist of Ancient Egypt. Then I lived on Abydos for a year…I think I'm entitled to be more used to deserts."

"Huh," piped up Cater, "I hadn't actually thought about it that way before, but you do seem to be the most comfortable on the warmer planets."

_Wait, what?_ Words from his previous encounter with this woman started to drift in from his memory. Words like "Stargate," "DHD," and the part he'd found most strange, "get back to Earth." These people were talking about other _planets_ like it was normal. He had a vague concept of other planets; Justin and Cyndi had been relentless in their attempts to "educate" him about things they found interesting, he just hadn't gotten into the whole thing as much as they had. He'd certainly found the idea of other planets and worlds interesting, but had had difficulty seeing how it would have any real bearing on his existence…although he was now starting to wonder.

The trio had continued their companionable conversation while Jack had been drifting behind them and musing. He almost didn't notice when they stopped in front of an elevator; he narrowly missed drifting right through the one called Cam. He'd never really timed it right to follow someone into this place, and wasn't sure how much luck he'd have in the future. _Plus_, he told himself,_ if I go in now, I'll be following someone I know._ The internal debate continued as they awaited the arrival of the elevator; curiosity warring with his increased sense of responsibility he'd gained since becoming a Guardian. He watched the trio pile into the rather large elevator with a pair of uniformed soldiers already inside and curiosity beat responsibility. He'd had the one for far longer than the other, after all. He'd take a look around, maybe play a few mini-pranks for fun, and follow someone back out when he wanted to leave. It's not like anyone was going to see him, what harm could it do?

What could possibly go wrong?

* * *

**A/N: Oh Jack, you should really know better than to ask that question. You'll learn all too soon just what can go wrong. Mwhahahaha!**

**Review Responses!**

**Rahar Moonfire: You posed an interesting idea, but there were a few problems I had with it in terms of incorporating it into this story. 1) It was a Jonas Quinn episode, and I was never that fond of him. 2) That episode took place in the Summer. 3) I felt this story had already gone through enough feature creep. I'd said 3 parts and I'm sticking with it (interlude not withstanding).**

**Zuzanny: Thanks. I felt that we needed a bit of happy before the real craziness began. It also helped that I had graduation on the brain, since I'm a high school teacher and for many of my students, graduation is a MAJOR accomplishment. I let my pride and happiness for them leak into my story; not something I regret.**

**peppymint: patience...patience...if it happened too fast, it wouldn't be all that satisfying.**

**leah0812: Glad you like it, hope you continue to do so.**

**Thank you all for reading! Moar Reviews!**

**Tzapporah signing off!**


	14. Chapter 10

**A/N: Hey look, an update only a few days later! And this one's a decent chunk longer than the last one. Well, shenanegans!**

**Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: I own none of this stuff, just the demented mind that put it together.**

* * *

**Part 3**

**Chapter 10: The Price of Curiosity**

"Um…sir," a young A1C said hesitantly. "I'm getting reports of strange thermal irregularities from various places around the base."

"Someone's playing with the thermostat, Airman?" Asked the bored-sounding lieutenant serving as shift supervisor.

"I…I doubt it, sir. There is nothing in the logs to indicate tampering with the thermostats, and several of these reports are coming from the temperature-regulated labs."

"Relax, Airman, I was joking. Could you define 'thermal irregularities'?" The lieutenant said soothingly.

"Cold-pockets, sir. Small areas of the labs and corridors that show a marked decrease in temperature from the ambient."

"Only decreases? No corresponding warm areas?"

"None that have been reported as yet, sir. It could be nothing, but..."

"But it could be something. Good work, Airman, I'll pass it on up the chain."

* * *

*BAAARRRINNNG*

Daniel Jackson, absorbed in translating a particularly tricky passage of Ancient, gave a little start before reaching for the phone in his office.

"Jackson." He said amiably.

"Doctor Jackson, we've got a bit of an odd question for you."

"Like there are any other kind around here? What is it, Siler?"

"We're getting strange readings and reports from around the base, and we were wondering if you've noticed anything odd."

"Odd? You'll have to be a bit more specific."

"Temperature fluctuations, like…cold pockets."

"I thought it was just the AC on the fritz—"

Daniel was cut off by a new voice on the phone, the head of base security. This was definitely something more serious than a broken AC system. "Does your office feel abnormally cool right now, Doctor?"

"Um…no…"

"Thank you, Doctor Jackson…General Landry would like to see you in his office in 20."

"Umm…ok…Colonel, what's this all about?"

"We'll discuss it in 20, Doctor Jackson, but we may have a Foothold situation, so use caution."

Daniel sat up straight in his seat in surprise as the Colonel's words sank in. _Possible Foothold…oh god no, not again._

* * *

Twenty minutes later, SG-1 was assembled in General Landry's office. "What's going on, sir?" asked Colonel Mitchell, "What's this about a possible Foothold?"

"We don't know exactly what it is yet, Colonel." Answered Landry, his grandfatherly amiable façade gone in the face of a threat to the base. "There have been strange localized temperature fluctuations or 'cold pockets' reported around the base. We would ordinarily attribute this to a glitch in the Air Conditioning system, but this phenomenon seems to be moving in a somewhat deliberate pattern. Colonel." He nodded towards the security head to continue.

"Here are the reported fluctuations with approximate times marked around the base. As you can see, the phenomenon seems to move around, sometimes staying stationary for a while and sometimes continuing to move on. It's almost as if it's—"

"Exploring," Sam cut him off. "Look at the places it moved right through and look at the places it stayed put. It breezed right through the infirmary, but stuck around for a while in the gym."

"That was the time Colonel Mitchell and I were sparring in that location." Stated Teal'c in his usual stoic matter when this was pointed out. "I almost thought I'd detected an additional presence in the room."

"You did seem a little distracted, T."

"Right, and here…it looks like it stopped by Daniel's place for less than a minute before moving on."

"Guess its curiosity wasn't strong enough to handle watching Daniel study." Quipped Mitchell. A half a beat later, he registered what he'd just said. "Wait, are you saying we've got a _sentient_ temperature-thingy taking a look around the base?"

Sam gave him a withering look. "No, Cam. I'm saying that the temperature abnormalities might just be an indicator of something _invisible_ investigating the base."

"Like a Reetou?" Landry asked with not a small amount of trepidation. "Could another one of them made their way on base?"

Sam shook her head, "I doubt it, sir. We've never seen nor heard of any temperature indications of Reetou presence. And besides, the only way a Reetou could've come in is via the Stargate, and there was no gate activity for at least twelve hours before the first fluctuations were reported."

"There's one thing that doesn't make sense to me on this," said Daniel, peering at the map, "It looks like it's limited itself to just the lab and the 'Gate floors, and it spends more time in areas where there are 'interesting' things…why hasn't it entered the Gate Room?"

"That's a good question, Doctor Jackson." Praised Landry, "Now what do you think that means?"

"Well, sir," said Sam, thoughtfully, "I don't think that we've just not noticed it. We have every kind of sensor known to man and a then some monitoring the Stargate. I also highly doubt our cold explorer would not find the 'Gate interesting, since we have been dialing out for scheduled contacts with off-world teams. Hmm…what's different about the Gate Room than the other areas on these floors?"

"Has anyone entered the Gate Room since the phenomenon was first reported, General Landry?" inquired Teal'c.

The Lieutenant Colonel in charge of security answered for the General. "Yes, they have…but the door has only been open at times the phenomenon was on some other level or at the other end of the complex."

"Stopped by doors, huh?" mused Landry, "Well that's something, at least. What do you propose, Colonel Carter?"

Sam's brow furrowed in thought. "I'm not sure, sir, but before we can do anything, I think we should make certain we can see it somehow."

"It seems to be surrounded by cold. Couldn't we switch the base security cameras to infrared mode or something?" asked Daniel.

"Good thought, but the calibration wouldn't be right. IR cameras are designed to pick up warmer signatures and let the cold ones fade into the background…but…hmm…I may be able to recalibrate a _few_ of them so that normal room temperature shows as warm." Mused Sam.

"Why can't you do it to all of 'em?" inquired Mitchell.

"That much of a change would need to be done manually to each camera one at a time, Cam. Plus it would cripple the rest of our security, since everything else would be whitewashed out in heat on the cameras. No, I think the best idea would be to set a little honey trap."

* * *

Jack had absolutely no regrets about following that trio down that elevator. This place was absolutely incredible and he'd only really seen a few floors! What other wonders did this place hold? Those two guys, one being that "Cam" guy he'd followed, practice fighting with staves had been awesome. He'd watched the two hungrily, filing away certain moves to try later with his crook. What had Justin called that friendly practice-fighting thing again? _Oh yeah! Sparring._ Jack had never really had anyone he could truly pretend-fight against; it was a fascinating concept to him.

Carter's lab had been interesting in its own right, too. She'd been fiddling with some weird little thing that looked like a keyboard in the shape of a set of choir risers. A laptop and a somewhat cylindrical device the size of a duffel bag with a ball on either end sat next to the little thing. Periodically, she'd fiddle with something on her computer and two flashes of light—barely five seconds apart—would engulf the room. After this she'd either frown or look extremely excited; either way, she'd rapidly jot down notes before making additional tweaks. Jack found the entire thing baffling and fascinating…for a while at least. He'd never been the most patient Spirit, and after the fifth such cycle went looking for something more interesting.

The Jackson guy…well, at least he looked like he was having fun. Because of Justin and Cyndi his literacy had improved by leaps and bounds—and he'd even read some books for pleasure—but, well…_studying_ and _Non-fiction_ were not his idea of fun. He left the man in his own little literary haven and went on to better things.

There were interesting things all over the base, but he noticed that a lot of traffic seemed to be going towards a central area. _I think I'll head over there now. Maybe I'll get lucky and someone'll actually be going in that one room with the guards by it. Eh, if not, I'll go into that room next to it that's getting a lot of traffic._

And so he followed a young soldier into the elevator and down to level 23 and padded on his bare feet towards the central area. To his surprise and delight, the doors in question were wide-open. He grinned at his luck and excited, flew through the openly-inviting doorway—only to slam head-first into an invisible wall.

_OW! What the hell was that?_ He thought, massaging his head for a moment before tentatively reaching out to the offending space with his hand. He drew his hand back with a pained hiss at the sharp, sparking bite of the invisible barrier. _Ookay, painful bitey wall, fine, I'll go over it._ He began to fly up and hit another painful barrier. _Above, too? Wait…please no…_ He backpedaled in fear, only to have is back impact yet another invisible wall.

The Winter Spirit started to panic. He was trapped, and his mind went back in a panic to that day in Santiago. He started frantically throwing himself against the sides of his prison, completely oblivious to the pain each impact caused him; he could _not_ get trapped like that again. His mind was a blank of panic, filled with one thought. _NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!_

He was so far gone in fear that he didn't notice the three people observing from the side. He didn't notice the pained, sympathetic expressions on two of their faces at the sparks he created with the barrier at each impact. He didn't notice the third, a stoic frown on his face, raise a small black S-shaped device and point it at him. He didn't notice the high-pitched noise it made, and when the beam of energy it fired hit him, he didn't notice anything at all.

* * *

**A/N: Yep, with all the stuff that the SGC's encountered over the years, do you really think they wouldn't have _some_ way of detecting Jack? We're finally getting to the meat of the story =D.**

**Review Response Time!**

**Kagiranai-Eternal: Heehee, you had the same response to reading the Gibbs-slap as I did to writing it. Made me giggle so much. And yes, so wrong for Jack.**

**Evenmoor: Yep, there's a reason I titled that chapter "Taunting Murphy"**

**Danny Hellcat: Glad you're appreciating it.**

**Moar Reviews!**

**Tzapporah Signing Off!**


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